Winston, A. S. (2006). Robert S. Woodworth and the Creation of an Eclectic Psychology. In D. A. Dewsbury, L. T. Benjamin, & M. Wertheimer (Eds.), Portraits of pioneers in psychology (pp. 51–66). American Psychological Association; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
In 1956, the American Psychological Foundation awarded its first Gold Medal to Robert Sessions Woodworth (1869-1962) for "unequaled contributions to shaping the destiny of scientific psychology" (Shaffer, 1956, p. 587). Woodworth did not receive this honor for his specific empirical or theoretical contributions. He was honored for his creation of a general framework for psychological inquiry, for his nurturing of many students who became influential psychologists, and perhaps most of all for his textbooks. These were far from ordinary textbooks in scope, depth, and clarity, and they were used around the world. Through these texts, Woodworth articulated an inclusive, eclectic vision for 20th-century psychology: diverse in its problems, but unified by the faith that careful empirical work would produce steady scientific progress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)