Mary Whiton Calkins
Mary Whiton Calkins was an American philosopher and psychologist. Calkins was also the first woman to become president of the American Psychological Association and the American Philosophical Association.
American philosophy
American philosophy is the activity, corpus, and tradition of philosophers affiliated with the United States. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that while it lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevertheless be seen as both reflecting and shaping collectiv…
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How did Mary Calkins impact psychology?
Calkins' Contributions to Psychology Among her major contributions to psychology are the invention of the paired association technique and her work in self-psychology. Calkins believed that the conscious self was the primary focus of psychology.
What is Mary Whiton Calkins best known for?
Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930) Mary Whiton Calkins was a late 19th and early 20th century psychologist and philosopher who introduced the field of self psychology. She was the first woman to become president of the American Psychological Association.
What was Mary Whiton Calkins theory?
She believed that the self should be the basic unit of study in psychology. Calkins argued that the self is comprised of a number of different characteristics, including uniqueness and consciousness. She felt that it was important for psychologists to study the self's relationship to its environment.
What was Mary Calkins importance in the history of psychology quizlet?
Mary Calkins studied under William James, founded one of the first dozen psychology laboratories in America at Wellesley College in 1891, invented a widely used technique for studying memory, and became the first woman to serve as president of the American Psychological Association in 1905.
Who started the feminist revolution in psychology?
The term feminist psychology was originally coined by Karen Horney. In her book, Feminine Psychology, which is a collection of articles Horney wrote on the subject from 1922–1937, she addresses previously held beliefs about women, relationships, and the effect of society on female psychology.
What was the major accomplishment of Mary Whiton Calkin?
Scholarly accomplishments include inventing the paired-associates technique for studying learning and memory, founding one of the first laboratories in psychology, and writing four books and over 100 articles on topics related to memory, dream analysis, self-psychology, consciousness, and philosophy.
Who is considered the founder of American psychology?
William JamesWilliam James was a psychologist and philosopher who had a major influence on the development of psychology in the United States. Among his many accomplishments, he was the first to teach a psychology course in the U.S. and is often referred to as the father of American psychology.
Who created America's first psychology journal?
There Hall was given space for one of the first psychological laboratories in the United States. The philosopher-psychologist-educator John Dewey was one of the first to use it. In 1887 Hall founded the American Journal of Psychology, the first such American journal and the second of any significance outside Germany.
What did Margaret Floy Washburn contribution to psychology?
Washburn developed her motor theory, which said that thought or consciousness could be seen in bodily movements. She believed that consciousness is the result of sensation and motion. With this theory, she was able to explain not only thinking and consciousness, but also the human ability to learn through association.
Which woman psychologist was the first to officially?
Mary Whiton CalkinsEducationBachelor of Arts in classics and philosophy, unawarded PhD in psychology (see text)Alma materSmith College, then Harvard University unofficially (see text)ThesisAssociation. An essay analytic and experimental. (1896)Doctoral advisorHugo Münsterberg15 more rows
How did Dorothea Dix contribute to psychology quizlet?
Dorothea Dix was a pioneer for the mental ill, indigenous people and a known activist. She also greatly impacted the medical field of nursing. Dorothea fought for social reform and better care for the mentally ill. Her activism created reform in hospitals all around America.
Who was the first African American to get a PhD in psychology?
Francis Sumner, PhDFrancis Sumner, PhD, is referred to as the “Father of Black Psychology” because he was the first African American to receive a PhD degree in psychology. Sumner was born in Arkansas in 1895.
What did Mary Whiton Calkins do?
After earning an undergraduate degree in 1882 from Smith College in classics and philosophy, Calkins began to teach Greek at Wellesley College . She found herself drawn to the nascent field of psychology, and in the late 1880’s Calkins was granted special permission to attend seminars at Harvard (then an all-male institution), including those offered by William James and Josiah Royce. In fact, Calkins was the sole student in James' graduate seminar in 1890, the year he published his famous Principles of Psychology. Calkins also worked in Hugo Münsterberg's lab from 1892-1895. Of her studies with James, Calkins wrote in her autobiography:
Where did Mary Calkins teach psychology?
She began to teach psychology at Wellesley, and established the first psychology laboratory at an American women’s college. In 1898 Calkins was elected as the American Psychological Association’s first female president. She authored several books and lectured widely during her distinguished, decades-long career in psychology.
Why was Calkins refused a doctorate at Harvard?
A committee of six professors, including James, unanimously voted that Calkins had satisfied all the requirements, but she was refused a Harvard doctoral degree because she was a woman.
What did Calkins do?
Calkins passed all the requirements for a Ph.D. at Harvard with distinction, and wrote her dissertation on memory, for which she developed the paired-associate experimental paradigm, one of the classic tools in memory research.
What did Mary Calkins do in 1880?
She found herself drawn to the nascent field of psychology, and in the late 1880’s Calkins was granted special permission to attend seminars at Harvard (then an all-male institution), including those offered by William James and Josiah Royce.
Who was the sole student in James' graduate seminar in 1890?
In fact, Calkins was the sole student in James' graduate seminar in 1890, the year he published his famous Principles of Psychology. Calkins also worked in Hugo Münsterberg's lab from 1892-1895. Of her studies with James, Calkins wrote in her autobiography:
Who was Mary Whiton Calkins?
Full Article. Mary Whiton Calkins, (born March 30, 1863, Hartford, Conn., U.S.—died Feb. 26, 1930, Newton, Mass.), philosopher, psychologist, and educator, the first American woman to attain distinction in these fields of study.
How many books did Calkins write?
Calkins’s writings encompass more than a hundred papers in professional journals of psychology and philosophy and several books, including An Introduction to Psychology (1901), The Persistent Problems of Philosophy (1907), which went through five editions, and The Good Man and the Good (1918).
Who is Hugo Münsterberg?
Hugo Münsterberg, German-American psychologist and philosopher who was interested in the applications of psychology to law, business, industry, medicine, teaching, and sociology. Münsterberg took his Ph.D. in 1885 and his M.D. at the University of Heidelberg….
Where did Mary Whiton Calkins live?
Her parents were Wolcott and Charlotte Whiton Calkins; Mary was known to be close with her family. She moved to Newton, Massachusetts in 1880 with her family to live for the rest of her life; this is also where she began her education. Her family moved from New York to Massachusetts because her father, who was a Presbyterian minister, got a new job there. Mary's father took an active role in overseeing his children's education, and when she graduated high school, he had planned her studies so that she was able to enroll in college. In 1882, Calkins entered into Smith College as a sophomore. She studied for the year, but in 1883 with the death of her sister she took a year off from college and studied on her own. While taking time off from school, Calkins received private tutoring lessons in Greek. During this year, she also tutored two of her brothers and studied Greek. She returned to Smith College in 1884 to graduate with a concentration in classics and philosophy.
What did Calkins do in philosophy?
A professor in the philosophy department noticed Calkins' excellent teaching and offered her a position to teach the subject of psychology, which was new to the philosophy department's curriculum. Calkins accepted the offer on the contingency that she would be able to study psychology for one year.
What major did Calkins take?
As a major in Classics, Calkins took advantage of the opportunities and spent several months traveling and studying modern Greek and classics. When she returned to Massachusetts, her father set up an interview with the President of Wellesley College, an all women's college, for a tutoring job in the Greek department.
What universities did Calkins go to?
Calkins contemplated psychology programs at the University of Michigan (with John Dewey ), Yale (with George Trumbull Ladd ), Clark (with Granville Stanley Hall ), and Harvard (with William James ). Calkins expressed interest in studying in a laboratory setting, and the only schools with that specification at the time were Clark and Harvard.
How many dreams did Calkins have?
She recorded 205 dreams and Sanford 170.
Why was Calkins born?
Calkins was born in a time when women were being given more opportunities, such as the opportunity to attend college and teach at those colleges. Despite this, she still faced discrimination being a woman in the education field. There were not many options for women looking to earn a degree in psychology.
When did Mary Calkins return to Wellesley?
In 1891 , Calkins returned to Wellesley as an instructor of psychology in the philosophy department. After the laboratory was established, it quickly gained popularity; Calkins' first laboratory seminar yielded over fifty students. Calkins began to make plans for furthering her education in psychology.
Who was Mary Whiton Calkins?
Her work in this field influenced much modern day psychotherapy, and some of her early ideas still inform psychotherapy practices today. The psychologist Mary Whiton Calkins wrote, taught and conducted research in psychology in the early 1900s.
What field of study did Mary Calkins work in?
This is now a major field in the study of learning. Self-Psychology. Though she contributed greatly to studies of memory and dreams, Calkins is best known for developing a system of self-psychology, which she worked on in conjunction with others at Harvard.
What did Calkins do to study memory?
Memory Research. Calkins also studied memory. She conducted a series of experiments in order to discern how well people are able to recall items. She devised a series of experiments in which she paired numerals with colors.
Why did Calkins wake up with an alarm clock?
The point of this research was to study the relationship between a state of dreaming and a state of consciousness.
What did Calkins believe about the self?
Calkins argued that the self is comprised of a number of different characteristics, including uniqueness and consciousness. She felt that it was important for psychologists to study the self's relationship to its environment.
Where was Mary Calkins born?
Biography. Calkins was born in Connecticut in 1863. At an early age, she became interested in obtaining an education and studied a variety of subjects at a number of universities, including Wellesley University and Smith College. Upon graduation, Calkins began teaching Greek at Wellesley. Other instructors took notice of Calkins' teaching ability ...
When did Mary Calkins become president?
In 1905 , she was elected president of the American Psychological Association, the largest professional association for the study of psychology. Calkins continued to fight for women's rights and equality in professional settings until her death in 1929.
Mary Whiton Calkins
Mary Whiton Calkins was among the very first generation of American psychologists. In 1905 she served as the first female President of the American Psychological Association and in 1908 was ranked twelfth on a 1908 list of the top 50 psychologists in the country. Calkins also served as President of the American Philosophical Association in 1918.
Her Story
Mary Whiton Calkins was among the very first generation of American psychologists. In 1905 she served as the first female President of the American Psychological Association and in 1908 was ranked twelfth on a 1908 list of the top 50 psychologists in the country. Calkins also served as President of the American Philosophical Association in 1918.
Who was Mary Whiton Calkins?
Mary Whiton Calkins was a late 19th and early 20th century psychologist and philosopher who introduced the field of self psychology. She was the first woman to become president of the American Psychological Association.
What did Calkins do for women?
A pioneer, Calkins broke barriers for women in the field of psychology. She wrote extensively about women's inequality, even conducting research into its consequences. As a psychologist at a time when women were denied the right to vote, she spoke at several women's suffrage conventions.
What is the contribution of Calkins?
Contribution to Psychology. Calkins devoted much of her research to the concept of the self in psychology. She believed that the self is a conscious and mobile force in the context of psychology. Calkins identified self psychology as the study of the conscious organism, focusing on the subject (or self), the object, ...
What was the first book that Mary Calkins wrote?
She introduced her theories in her first book, An Introduction to Psychology, in 1901, and she delivered an in-depth address on self psychology in her presidential address to the APA. Calkins emphasized the importance of the experience of the self in its environment and the social role of the self.
How much did Calkins spend on psychology?
She helped establish the first lab dedicated to the study of psychology at Wellesley, with a budget of only $200.
How many dreams did Calkins analyze?
Using her own dreams and those of a colleague, Calkins recorded and analyzed over 350 dreams.
What technique did Calkins use to help women?
In this process, a series of numbers is paired with a series of colors, increasing the subject's ability to remember each. A pioneer, Calkins broke barriers for women in the field of psychology.
Who was Mary Whiton Calkins?
Mary Whiton Calkins. American psychologist and philosopher who became the first woman president of both the American Psychological Association (1905) and the American Philosophical Association (1918). The eldest of five children born to Reverend Wolcott Calkins, a strong-willed, intellectually gifted evangelical minister, ...
Where did Mary Calkins teach?
After earning a B.A. from Smith College with a concentration in the classics, Calkins began teaching Greek at Wellesley College in 1887. In 1888, she was offered the new position of instructor in psychology there, which was contingent upon a year's training in the discipline.
What is the Calkins technique?
During the course of this work, Calkins originated the "paired associates" technique, a method of testing memory by presenting test subjects with paired numbers and colors. Her findings revealed that numbers paired with bright colors were retained better than those associated with neutral colors.
What university did Calkins attend?
Consistent with university policy toward women in 1890, Calkins was granted special permission to attend classes in psychology and philosophy at Harvard University and in laboratory psychology at Clark University in Worcester, but was denied admission to their graduate studies programs.
What did Calkins do at James' seminar?
Attendance at James's seminar led to individual study with him, and within a year Calkins had published a paper on association, suggesting a modification to James's recently published Principles of Psychology. Her paper was enthusiastically received by her mentor, who referred to it when he later revised his book.
Who established the first psychology laboratory?
Returning to Wellesley in the fall of 1891, Calkins established the first psychology laboratory at a women's. Mary Whiton Calkins ( Archives of the History of American Psychology. Reproduced with permission.) college in the United States with help from Edmund Sanford, a faculty member at Clark, with whom she collaborated on an experimental study ...
Who were the Harvard professors who denied her permission to attend Harvard?
She was also denied permission to attend regular Harvard seminars until faculty members William James and Josiah Royce (1855-1916) , as well as Calkins's father, intervened on her behalf. After she was enrolled in James's seminar, four men enrolled in the class dropped it in protest.
Best Known Work
- Self-psychology
- Inventing paired-associate technique
- First woman APA President
- Self-psychology
- Inventing paired-associate technique
- First woman APA President
Timeline of Events
- Born on March 30, 1863 in Hartford, Connecticut
- 1884 - Graduated from Smith College
- 1887 - Began teaching Greek at Wellesley College
- 1890 - Began attending lectures at Harvard taught by William James and Josiah Royce
Early Years
- Mary Whiton Calkins began Smith College in 1882 as a sophomore. The 1883 death of her sister led to a year-long break from school, although she continued to study through private lessons. Calkins returned to Smith College in 1884 and graduated with a concentration in classics and philosophy.
Career
- At Harvard, Calkins invented the paired-associate task which involved showing study participants a series of paired colors and numerals, then testing recollections of which number had been paired with which color. The technique was used to study memory and was later published by Edward B. Titchener, who claimed credit for its development.2 In 1895, she presented her thes…
Calkins' Contributions to Psychology
- Over the course of her career, Calkins wrote over a hundred professional papers of topics in psychology and philosophy. In addition to being the first woman president of the American Psychological Association, Calkins also served as president of the American Philosophical Association in 1918.1 Despite Mary Whiton Calkins' contributions, Harvard maintains its refus…
Selected Works
- Calkins, Mary Whiton. (1892). Experimental Psychology at Wellesley College. American Journal of Psychology, 5, 464-271. Calkins, Mary Whiton (1908a). Psychology as Science of Self. I: Is the Self Body or Has It Body? Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 5, 12-20. Calkins, Mary Whiton. (1915). The Self in Scientific Psychology. American Journal of Psychology, 26, 49…
Overview
Mary Whiton Calkins was an American philosopher and psychologist, whose work informed theory and research of memory, dreams and the self. In 1903, Calkins was the twelfth in a listing of fifty psychologists with the most merit, chosen by her peers. Calkins was refused a Ph.D. by Harvard University because of her gender.
Background
Mary Whiton Calkins was born on March 30, 1863, in Hartford, Connecticut. She was the eldest of eight children. Her parents were Wolcott and Charlotte Whiton Calkins. Mary was close with her family. In 1880, she moved to Newton, Massachusetts with her family to begin her education and remained there for the rest of her life. Her family moved from New York to Massachusetts because her father, who was a Presbyterian minister, got a new job there.
Career
Calkins published four books and over one hundred papers in her career, in both the fields of psychology and philosophy. Calkins was interested in memory and later in the concept of the self. She is best known for her accomplishments within the field of psychology and her struggles to achieve. After being rejected for a degree from Harvard, Calkins continued to work and strive for equality.
Personal life
Outside of her contributions to the field of psychology, Calkins was an avid supporter of women's rights. Calkins was a suffragist - active in the fight for women's right to vote, disputing "in a democratic country, governed as this is by the suffrage of its citizens, and given over as this is to the principle and practice of educating women, a distinction based on the difference of sex is artificial and illogical". Calkins was a pacifist and a member of the American Civil Liberties Union…
See also
• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers
Notes
1. ^ Johnson, Deborah (1999). "Calkins, Mary Whiton". American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press. (subscription required)
2. ^ Furumoto, Laurel (1980). "Mary Whiton Calkins". Psychology of Women Quarterly. 5: 55–68. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1980.tb01033.x.
3. ^ Bumb, Jenn (n.d.). "Mary Whiton Calkins". Women's Intellectual Contribution to the Study of Mind and Society. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
External links
• Works by Mary Whiton Calkins at Project Gutenberg
• The Wellesley Psychology Laboratory Video by Jennifer L. Bazar
• Podcast Interview on Mary Whiton Calkins with Kathy Milar
• Finding Aid for Mary Whiton Calkins at Wellesley College Archives