George Trumbull Ladd

author

George Trumbull Ladd

1842–1921

A minister-turned-philosopher who helped bring experimental psychology into American universities, he wrote influential textbooks that shaped how the young field was taught. He spent much of his career at Yale and also served as the second president of the American Psychological Association.

2 Audiobooks

In Korea with Marquis Ito

In Korea with Marquis Ito

by George Trumbull Ladd

Rare days in Japan

Rare days in Japan

by George Trumbull Ladd

About the author

Born in Painesville, Ohio, in 1842, George Trumbull Ladd studied at Western Reserve College and Andover Theological Seminary before beginning his career in the ministry. After serving as a Congregational pastor, he moved into academic life, teaching philosophy at Bowdoin College and then joining Yale, where he was associated for decades.

Ladd is remembered as an early builder of psychology in the United States. Britannica notes that his textbooks were influential in establishing experimental psychology, and Elements of Physiological Psychology became an important early English-language handbook in the field. He also helped found the American Psychological Association and became its second president in 1893.

His work sat at the crossroads of philosophy, theology, and psychology. Even while arguing for a more scientific psychology, he treated the subject as closely tied to larger philosophical questions about mind, knowledge, and human nature, which gives his writing a distinctive place in the history of American thought.