Lois Barclay Murphy

If one were to research figures like Christine Ladd Franklin and Mary Whiton Calkins who are giants within the field, one would have no trouble finding the literature. But, if one were to research a figure like Lois Barclay Murphy, one would find him/herself instantly in the bounded annex section of a library basement, all alone. Lois Barclay Murphy become known in the field of psychology through her studies on child development, personality, projective techniques, as well as on the nature of sympathy (2002 Sarah Lawrence College Archives, (2002) (2002 SLCA).

Lois Barclay Murphy was born in Lisbon Iowa on March 23, 1902 to Wade Crawford and Mary (Hartley) Barclay. In 1923, she completed her undergraduate studies at Vassar College, receiving a bachelor's degree in economics with a minor in religion and psychology. After her graduation from Vassar College, L. B. Murphy and her friend Ruth Monroe moved to New York where they both attended graduate school at Union Theological Seminary (2002 SLCA, 2002).

While at Union Theological Seminary, Monroe introduced the then Lois Barclay to Gardner Murphy, who at the time was a professor of Psychology at Columbia University. Both Gardner Murphy and Lois Barclay were married in 1926 (2002 SLCA, 2002). Twelve years after her marriage, L. B. Murphy finally completed the requirements for a B.D. from Union Theological Seminary in 1938 (2002 SLCA, 2002).

According to the 2002 SLCA (2002), after completing her program, she was hired by Sarah Lawrence College to teach comparative religion. However, due to some unknown difference with the Colleges president, Marion Coats, L.B. Murphy left her teaching position after one year. As to whether or not she quite the position or she was fired is quite unclear.

After leaving her position at Sarah Lawrence College she met the head of the Macy's Foundation in New York who solicited her to conduct a study of sympathy exhibited be preschoolers this study was to become her dissertation at Columbia University, which enabled her to receive her doctorial degree in psychology in 1973 (2002 SLCA, 2002). The results from the study showed that as young as 2-years old, children were capable of showing care and defense for each other as well as warning each other of some kind of danger (2002 SLCA, 2002).

Because the study brought so much previously unknown information to the field of psychology, this study also became her groundbreaking study that launched her career not only as a child psychologist but also as a social psychologist (2002 SLCA, 2002).

It appears that L.B. Murphy made a good impression on her students during the year she taught at Sarah Lawrence College. Just one year after L.B. Murphy left the college, Marion Coats was relieved from her duties and replaced by Constance Warren. Warren was receiving numerous letters from the student praising L.B. Murphy as well as verbal request for the return her to return to the institute. Warren, taking the advice and recommendation of her students invited L.B. Murphy back to her teaching position. The invitation was accepted and she remained on the Sarah Lawrence College faculty until 1952 under both tenure status and chairperson of the college's research committee (2002 SLCA, 2002).

While at Sarah Lawrence College, she started the institute's first child development center; "Dr. Murphy used the Nursery School as a site for much of her research on children and personality development. Leading up to the publication of Methods for the Study of Personality in Young Children (1941) (2002 SLCA, 2002, On-line)." The developmental center is now considered "The Early Childhood Center," which is "a preschool, kindergarten and first grade for children two through six. The ECC serves as a training and research facility for students and faculty (http://www.slc.edu/~grad/childdevelopment/cdresources.htm, 2002)."

After leaving the institute in 1952, L.B. Murphy and Gardner Murphy moved to Topeka, Kansas, to work for the Menninger Foundation where Gardner became the director. A majority of L.B. Murphy's work was conducted through the Menninger Foundation where they both remained until 1968 (2002 SLCA, 2002). The couple then moved to Washington D.C. where Gardner accepted a position working for George Washing University while Lois worked for the Children's Hospital as a research consultant (2002 SLCA, 2002). In 1979, eleven years after they moved to Washington D.C., Gardner Murphy died and L. B. Murphy remained there after his death.

It is quite evident that L.B. Murphy made an impact in the field of psychology, particularly in the field of developmental psychology, which qualified her to be a recipient of the G. Stanley Hall Award for the American Psychological Association in 1981. She was also asked to submit an autobiography to The Psychologist: Autobiographies of Distinguished Living Psychologist (2002 SLCA, 2002).

Personality in Young Children

L.B. Murphy was also able to conclude from this study that even though the interactions between the two children called forth new potentiality traits, the new traits appeared specific only to that environmental situation and if that situation were to disappear or no longer exist, that potentiality would also disappear. "Some kinds of potentialities appear only in certain kinds of group constituted for particular work or play purposes. Let the group situation disappear" the personalities which appear in them [will] go out like a candle (Murphy, Murphy & Newcomb, 1937, p. 875)."

In light of findings-new personality traits appearing in certain situations, L.B. Murphy makes it clear that the "formulation does not deny that some aspects of personality, in some persons, are more rigid and unresponsive to alterations in the social than other aspects (Murphy, Murphy & Newcomb, 1937, p. 875)." The examples given by L.B. Murphy for more rigid and unresponsive traits are of two kinds-positive and negative. Positive personality traits like "heroism" in the face of a possible persecuting situation would be more valuable than the negative "catatonia" in face of the same persecuting situation (Murphy, Murphy & Newcomb, 1937).

L.B. Murphy referred to the possibility of ones personality to remain unresponsive to changing situations as "organismic inflexibility (Murphy, Murphy & Newcomb, 1937, p. 875)." She considered this "organismic inflexibility" as an empirical problem that could only be solved or in her term "clarified" after an individual or an organism has been introduced to the environment and those environments variations. However, an organism may be exposed to the environment and its variations, the exposure may still not be enough for a clear and concise determination of that organisms true potential-new potentialities may not come forth in light of the exposure. "Even the total number of variations confronted by a person living in one culture is too limited to give us a clear picture of the actual potentialities of the person (Murphy & Newcomb, 1937, p. 875)."

According to Murphy and Newcomb (1937) this is why a researcher studying personality may not be able to generalize his or her findings from personality research conducted in one culture to another culture. Generalizing those findings would be considered "inadequate" in predicting the potentialities of another culture because beings in one culture may not have been exposed to the same environmental variations existent in another culture. Since the environmental situations somewhat creates new personalities specific to the that situation, which may be specific to that culture, then one beings personality specific to a situation, which is specific to a his or her culture, may not and possibly never appear in another being from another culture unless, that being is introduced to that situation existent in that culture. In other words cultural influences supersede genetic dispositions.

Although little biographical information was provided in this paper I find it very important to say that Lois Barclay Murphy was not only an impact full individual upon the field of psychology; she was also an impact upon the institutions she worked for. Her contribution and studies on "nursery school children, including the work she did leading up to the publication of Methods for Studying Personality Development in Young Children, the Children in Wartime Study [and her] papers regarding the Wilkie Study on Growth in College (2002 SLCA, 2002)" will always be remembered as her intellectual contribution to the field of Behavioral and Social Science.

References

• Murphy, G., Murphy, L.B., and Newcomb, T. (1937). Experimental Social Psychology: An Interpretation of Research upon the Socialization of the Individual. New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers.

• Murphy, Lois Barclay. (1956). Personality in young children. Vol. 1. Methods for the study of personality in young children. Oxford, England: Basic Books. 424.

• Sarah Lawrence College. (2002). The Early Childhood Center. [On-line]. Available: http://www.slc.edu/~grad/childdevelopment/cdresources.htm . Extracted, September 13, 2002.

• Scarborough, E., & Furumoto, L. (1987). Untold Lives: The Fist Generation of American Women Psychologist. New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press.

• 2002 Sarah Lawrence College Archives. (2002). Lois Barclay Murphy Papers. [On-line]. Available: http://pages.slc.edu/~archives/lbm_papers.htm Extracted, September 13, 2002.