George Humphrey

George William Humphrey FRSC (17 July 1889 – 24 April 1966) was a British psychologist, author, and philosopher. He was the founder of the Canadian Psychological Association, the first Director of the Institute of Experimental Psychology, and Professor of Psychology at the University of Oxford. Humphrey's research concentrated on behavioral studies such as reinforcement, habituation, and apparent movements, as well as psychophysical topics like audiogenic seizures. He is known for Humphrey's Law.

Early life George Humphrey was born in the county of Kent, England on 17 July 1889.

Education He attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham from 1901.

Humphrey graduated with honors from the University of Oxford where he studied the classical languages, mathematics, and philosophy. He was given a scholarship to study psychology at the University of Leipzig and worked alongside Wilhelm Wundt in the first psychology laboratory. Humphrey received a PhD in psychology from Harvard University in 1920.

Professional history In 1916, Humphrey traveled to Canada to teach classics at St. Francis Xavier University until 1918. After receiving his doctorate in 1920, he took a job as an assistant professor for four years at Wesleyan University in the United States. Humphrey returned to Canada and was given the position of Charlton Professor in Philosophy at Queen's University from 1924 to 1947. When he arrived at the university, psychology was a relatively new field of study and was included in the Department of Philosophy. He made great strides to further develop this aspect of the department. In 1939, he founded the Canadian Psychological Association and appointed Donald Hebb to be the first instructor in experimental psychology at Queen's. However, he did cite the existence of unconscious thought processes in Humphrey's Law, which states that automatization of a task (usually in the case of movement) is impaired when a task is performed with conscious effort. This book is considered by Queen's University to be his most important work.

Humphrey thought that mental escapism could have great benefits and was healthy within reason. He particularly believed that watching movies helped "soothe the raw nerves" of people living in a post-war era. To him, escapism provided a means of coping with other aspects of everyday life that were overly restrictive, like work.

Under the alternate pen name Donald MacPherson, Humphrey wrote two other books. Go Home Unicorn and Men Are Like Animals were science fiction novels that drew from Freudian psychology and were published pseudonymously in 1935 and 1937, respectively.

Personal life Humphrey married Muriel Miller in 1918, but after her death in 1955, he remarried the following year to his colleague Berta Hotchberger. He spent the last years of his life in St. John's College at Cambridge, where he was actively involved in the school and surrounded by close friends. Humphrey died after an illness quickly took his life on 24 April 1966. In his honor, Queen's University designated the main building of their department of psychology as Humphrey Hall. His colleagues remembered him as being very friendly, active, and neat, but also tenacious of his opinions.