Clark Hull
| Clark Leonard Hull | |
|---|---|
Clark Leonard Hull
|
|
| Born |
May 24, 1884 Akron, New York, United States |
| Died | May 10, 1952 (aged 67) New Haven, Connecticut, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Psychology |
| Institutions |
University of Wisconsin Yale University |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
Clark Leonard Hull (May 24, 1884 – May 10, 1952) was an American psychologist who sought to explain learning and motivation by scientific laws of behavior. Hull is known for his debates with Edward C. Tolman. He is also known for his work in drive theory.
Hull spent the mature part of his career at Yale University, where he was recruited by the president and former-psychologist, James Rowland Angell. He performed research demonstrating that his theories could predict behavior. His most significant works were the Mathematico-Deductive Theory of Rote Learning (1940), and Principles of Behavior (1943), which established his analysis of animal learning and conditioning as the dominant learning theory of its time. Hull’s model is expressed in biological terms: Organisms suffer deprivation; deprivation creates needs; needs activate drives; drives activate behavior; behavior is goal directed; achieving the goal has survival value.
He is perhaps best known for the "goal gradient" effect or hypothesis, wherein organisms spend disproportionate amounts of effort in the final stages of attainment of the object of drives. Due to the lack of popularity of behaviorism in modern contexts it is little referenced today or bracketed as obsolete. Nonetheless, a Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Hull as the 21st most cited psychologist of the 20th century.
Hull was born in a log house in Akron, New York on May 24, 1884. He was born to a powerful father who was known to have a violent temper. His father was largely uneducated and married his mother, a shy woman from Connecticut, when she was 15. Clark’s father didn’t get a lot of schooling because his father worked a lot as a child, so he didn’t learn how to read and was eventually taught by his wife. At the age of three or four, Hull and his family moved to a farm in Michigan. Here, he and his younger brother, Wayne, helped the farm by performing manual labor and chores around the house.
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