Why is William James important in psychology?

Harvard University was the first school in America to offer classes in psychology in the late 1870s. These classes were taught by one of Harvard's most illustrious instructors, William James (1842-1910). James began teaching anatomy and physiology, but as his interest in psychology developed, he began teaching psychology almost exclusively. His comprehensive textbook on the subject, Principles of Psychology, is so brilliantly written that copies are still in print.

Unlike Wundt and Titchener, James was more interested in the importance of consciousness to everyday life rather than just the analysis of it. He believed that the scientific study of consciousness itself was not yet possible. Conscious ideas are constantly flowing in an ever-changing stream, and once you start thinking about is no longer what you were thinking about, it's what you are thinking about, and . . . excuse me, I'm a little dizzy.

Instead, James focused on how the mind allows people to function in the real world--how people work, play, and adapt to their surroundings, a viewpoint he called functionalism (He was heavily influenced by Charles Darwin's ideas about natural selection, in which physical traits that help an animal adapt to its environment and survive are passed on to its offspring, becoming part of the animal's traits.)