time traveling to Germany
As James Madison, time traveling to Germany in 1883 and attending Wilhelm Wundt’s experimental class at Leipzig University, is a great honor. As such, I would make the most of my time at the institution devoted to my studies, and this means developing relationships both on a personal and academic level with people who would have the most positive impact. Thus in all certainty, following the exuding evidence about the nature of Cattell portrayed in his letters, it would be wise not to choose him as a research partner.
Foremost, Cattell is depicted as a narcissist. The letters characterize him as exemplifying long-term patterns of embellished feelings of self-importance as well as a surfeit need for admiration. Fundamentally, Cattell extremely exudes patterns of arrogance in both behavioral mannerism and thought non-empathetic, non-considerate, and self-centeredness. Accordingly, Cattell is only concerned with himself and his self-worth as rising psychology destined for prominence. He exceedingly views himself as being only the best student and often doubts the teaching ability of Professor Wundt and the ability of the other German students in his class (Benjamin, 2005). Cattell considers them beneath his mental ability in the understanding of experimental psychological issues. Cattell over-emphasizes his self-importance by accentuating the instrumentality of his unpublished papers, which he thinks them of great significance when compared to the published works of Professor Wundt, which are inherently marked by mistakes and wrong experimental results (Blumenthal, 1975). Similarly, he consistently displays his need for admiration by overly praising his earlier works studied in Baltimore, progressive papers written in Germany, and his invention in psychology, as being word class to attract admirations from his parents and other students. Overall, Cattell’s narcissistic tendencies discourage me from choosing him as my research partner.
Besides, Cattell is seen as being incredibly selfish. The letters characterize him with extremes of self-centeredness. He gives less regard to selflessness and is exceptionally selfish in sharing his successes with others. As seen, Cattell often worries about Professor Wundt and Hall taking the credit for his works. Albeit his experimental psychological work being in the developmental stages, Cattell fears that the interest of Professors in his work will drive them to include them in their class teaching and further publish them as their own (Benjamin, 2005). Besides, he believes that the professor is not ready to give him credit for his contributions to the teaching of experimental psychology, driving him to cut ties from his lab and continuing his experiments elsewhere so that Professor Wundt does not learn of it. Overall, this perceived behavior of self-centeredness identifies Cattell as a person who does not like sharing research ideas and credits, which substantially makes him an unsuitable partner for research.
Also, Cattell is a manipulative person, and this single personality trait questions his entire morality as a person. Notably, a research partner should be someone of a high ethical dimension, meaning that they display honesty in virtually every aspect of their research work to enhance the credibility of the research work (Resnik, 2006). However, Cattell is manipulative because he threatens to publicly make known the errors in Professor Wundt’s research publications if the professor does not pass him in his exams (Benjamin, 2005). This is unethical because he results in cunningness to get good grades rather than working hard to pass his exams. Overall, his manipulative nature significantly questions his morality, making him an unsuitable research partner.
In conclusion, James Madison should not choose Cattell as his research partner, given his underlying negative characterization and mannerism. Fundamentally the letters depict Cattell as being a narcissist, selfish and manipulative. Altogether, these characteristics give the negative impression of his personality, making him unattractive as a research partner.