Women in Psychology

Prominent Women in American Psychology пÑ--Ð...The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by manпÑ--Ð...s attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than can woman (Darwin).пÑ--Ð... DarwinпÑ--Ð...s professional assumption of the intelligence of women greatly exemplified the defining opinion of the day when psychology was in its developmental stages. However, many women went to great lengths to disprove and banish this thought. One such woman was Mary Whiton Calkins. Calkins is perhaps best known for becoming the first woman president of the American Psychological Association, a feat unheard of in her time. Unfortunately, the road to achieving this feat was paved with many obstacles and discriminating persons. Mary Whiton Calkins was born on March 30, 1863. She was born in Buffalo, New York, to Wolcott Calkins, a Presbyterian minister, and was the eldest of five children. The family moved to Newton, Massachusetts, when Mary was seventeen and built a home there that she would live in until her death. Her father was fundamental to MaryпÑ--Ð...s education, designing and supervising her schooling, well aware of the sparse opportunities available to women. In 1882, she was allowed to enter into Smith College with advance standing as a sophomore. Unfortunately, her sisterпÑ--Ð...s death in 1883 permanently influenced her thinking and the following year she stayed at home and received private lessons. She reentered Smith in the fall of 1884 as a senior and graduated with a concentration in classics and philosophy. In 1886, her family moved to Europe for sixteen months. Here, she was able to broaden her knowledge of the classics. After returning to Massachusetts, her father arranged for an interview for her with the president of Wellesley College. There, she was a tutor in Greek beginning in the fall of 1887 and remained in that department for three years. Fortunately, a professor in the Philosophy department noted her talent for teaching and convinced her to consider the new field of Psychology. In order for Calkins to be able to teach Psychology, she had to study for at least one year in a Psychology program. However, she faced many problems reaching this goal. First, there were few Psychology departments in existence in 1890. Second, by being a woman, she was highly unlikely to be admitted to one of these programs. She was advised that the best chance she had to succeed was to study abroad. She promptly dismissed this idea and began to look for other options. She seriously considered the University of Michigan, where she would be studying under John Dewey, and Yale, where she would be studying under G.T. Ladd. However, these too were dismissed. She finally settled on Harvard, one of the few universities that boasted a laboratory. CalkinsпÑ--Ð... first introduction was a promising one. She had received a letter from William James and Josiah Royce stating that she could пÑ--Ð...sit-inпÑ--Ð... on their lectures on a strictly informal basis. She contacted the president of Harvard expressing her desire to sit in on these lectures but was rejected on the grounds that пÑ--Ð...her presence at these lectures would receive an angry reaction from the governing body at Harvard.пÑ--Ð... In response, MaryпÑ--Ð...s father petitioned Harvard requesting that his daughter be granted admission to these lectures. The president of Wellesley College also wrote a letter on her behalf stating that she was a member of their faculty and this program was suited to her needs. Harvard finally approved the petition on October 1, 1890. However, it was noted that Miss Calkins was being afforded this privilege and was not entitled to registration and was not a student of the college. Ironically, when she arrived for her first lecture with James in the fall, she was the only person in the class. This fortunate turn allowed her somewhat of a private tutoring session with one of AmericaпÑ--Ð...s most prominent Psychologists. In addition to her lectures with James and Royce, she began studying experimental psychology under Dr. Edmund Sanford of Clark University. Mary Calkins returned to Wellesley College in the fall of 1891 as an Instructor of Psychology under the department of Philosophy. Her first year back, she established a psychological laboratory at the college. In 1892, Calkins was once again allowed to пÑ--Ð...sit-inпÑ--Ð... on classes at Harvard, this time under Hugo Munsterberg in his laboratory while he was visiting the college. She conducted several experiments while under Munsterberg and invented the paired-associate technique. This was a suggested classification of cases of associations dealing with studying memory. Her technique was later refined by G.E. Muller and included in TitchnerпÑ--Ð...s Student Manual, taking full credit for it himself. Calkins continued her research under Professor Munsterberg until October of 1894, at which time Munsterberg wrote to the president of Harvard requesting that Mary be admitted as a candidate for the Ph.D. On October 29, 1894, Harvard refused. The following year, she presented her thesis, An experimental research on the association of ideas to Professors Palmer, James, Royce, Munsterberg, Harris, and Dr. Santayana. All agreed that she satisfied the requirements for her degree, but alas, it was denied. In 1895, Calkins returned to Wellesley College and was named an Associate Professor of Psychology and Philosophy. She was promoted to Professor in 1898. She continued to do research and completed hundreds of papers that were published in both journals of psychology and philosophy. In addition, she wrote four books and essays concerning the religiousness of children and the philosophical treatment of time as related to causality and to space. Perhaps her most profound contribution to psychology was her system of пÑ--Ð...self-psychology;пÑ--Ð... as she called it, a reconciliation between structural and functional psychology. This field dealt with space and time consciousness, emotion, association, color theory, and dreams. She held that the conscious self was the central fact of psychology (Bumb1). Her first basic definition of her psychology is as follows: пÑ--Ð...All sciences deal with facts, and there are two great classes of facts-Selves and Facts-for-the-Selves. But the second of these groups, the Facts-for-the-Selves, is again capable of an important division into internal and external facts. To the first class belong percepts, images, memories, thoughts, emotions, and violations, inner events as we may call them; to the second class belong the things and the events of the outside world, the physical facts, as we may name themпÑ--Ð...The physical sciences study these common and apparently independent or external facts; psychology as distinguished from them is the science of consciousness, the study of selves and