Alexander bains biography

WORKS BY BAIN

WORKS ABOUT BAIN

SUPPLEMENTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexander Bain (1818–1903) is remembered primarily as an associationist and physiological psychologist, and his contributions to social and differential psychology have perhaps been unduly neglected.

Alexander bains biography

Bain’s father was an ex-soldier turned weaver, whose earnings progressively diminished as his eight children grew up. Bain himself left school and began to work at the age of 11; indeed, he assisted his siblings financially for a considerable portion of his life.

He felt handicapped in competition with his economically more fortunate peers and, not surprisingly, developed lifelong dyspepsia and a tendency toward merciless criticism of the shortcomings of others. Certain of his personal characteristics clearly affected his career: his sincerity led to religious nonconformity, and this delayed his academic advancement (he became professor of logic and rhetoric at the University of Aberdeen in 1860, after severa