Psyche Cattell
Psyche was not James McKeen Cattell 's nickname!
Poster Handout, 24th National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology

Linda M. Woolf, Ph.D.
Main web page: http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/
Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society: http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/women.html
Webster University

Introduction

Women such as Mary Calkins, Christine Ladd-Franklin, Inez Beverly Prosser, Galina Starovoitova, and a host of others have often been omitted from the history of psychology. In some cases, women psychologists faced immense roadblocks that limited their opportunities for professional activity, productivity, and recognition. In other cases, however, women who made significant contributions both inside and outside of psychology have simply faded into obscurity.

This poster is designed to provide information concerning a seminar created specifically to introduce students to the contributions of these foremothers as well as the contributions of more contemporary women psychologists. This seminar examines the lives of these women, their intellectual contributions, and the unique impact and special problems that being female had on their careers. In relation to the latter, issues such as the family claim, the exclusion of women from the academy, marriage vs. career, mentoring problems, the myth of meritocracy, and the effect of stereotyping and prejudice are discussed in relation to these womenÕs lives and careers. Students are also asked to examine the impact of these issues on their own lives and academic careers.

Additional emphasis is placed in the seminar on highlighting the lives of women psychologists who are at special risk for being lost to the history of psychology such as women of color and international women psychologists. The lives of women in related disciplines such an anthropology and sociology are also discussed.

Students in the seminar learn a variety of library, cybrary, research, and investigative skills, as the information is often not accessible through the use of traditional literature search methods. Thus, students learn how to use archival sources (where available), conduct interviews, search newspaper files and obituaries, request information from the psychologistÕs hometown newspaper, place of employment, historical society, etc., search back issues of early journals and psychology magazines, or track down other obscure sources of information.

Who can we thank or perhaps curse for inventing these?

Electric Kitchen Mixer

Refridgeratror Door Shelves

Step-On Trash Can

Answer

Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society

(PSYC/ANS0 4600 01)

Course Description:

Women such as Christine Ladd-Franklin, Mary Cawkins, and Mamie Clark have traditionally been omitted from the histories of their disciplines. This seminar is designed to re-place women into the history of psychology, sociology, anthropology, and social work. We will examine the lives of these women, their intellectual contributions, and the unique impact and special problems that being female had on their careers. As this course is a seminar, active student participation in presentation and discussion of material is expected.

"The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by man's attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than can woman." - Darwin (1871)

"Identical education of the sexes is a crime before God and humanity, that physiology protests against and that experience weeps over." - Clarke (1873)

"Deficiency in reproductive power . . . can be reasonable attributed to the overtaxing of (women's) brains." - Spencer (1867)

"The 'woman's rights movement' is an attempt to rear, by the process of 'un-natural selection', a race of monstrosities - hostile alike to men, to normal women, to human society, and to the future development of our race." - Bagehut (1879)

This course highlights the fact that statements such as these failed to deter ALL women.

E.G. Boring in his classic, A History of Experimental Psychology, credits Adolph Jost with the idea of paired associates learning but who really should have received the credit?

Answer

Course Objectives & Outcomes:

  1. Objective: To become familiar with the major women (primarily from the past but we can also include current scholars) who have personally and professionally significantly impacted the fields of anthropology, psychology, social work, and sociology.

    Outcome: The student will be able to identify the major women contributors to the fields of anthropology, psychology, social work, and sociology.

  2. Objectives: To become familiar with the work of these women scholars.

    Outcome: The student will be able to discuss the work of these scholars.

    Outcome: Students will be able to put all of the information from the course into a comprehensive resource that can be accessed via the World Wide Web.

  3. Objectives: To develop an understanding of the special problems that women have experienced as they developed their careers within the tradition of academic science.

    Outcome: The student will be able to articulate the special problems these women experienced during their careers as women scholars and academics.

    Outcome: Students will be able to examine the potential impact of these concerns on their current life as students and on their future careers.

  4. Objectives: To further develop library, cybrary and other research skills.

    Outcome: The student will conduct independent research and communicate their findings through written and oral presentations.

In 1941, the National Council of Women Psychologists was organized "to make the service women psychologists more readily available to assist with the war effort." This organization is now known as?

Answer

Course Requirements:

  1. Two major papers with bibliography each discussing the life and work of a significant women contributor to one of the fields associated with the study of mind and society. A presentation to class to accompany the paper. Papers due within 72 hours of presentation. 45%

  2. Three short papers with bibliography and short presentations each discussing the life and work of two significant women contributors to the fields associated with the study of mind and society. Papers due within 72 hours of presentation. 30%

    Note: Students will select which women to study during the first two weeks of class. No two students may select the same individuals.

  3. A personal reaction paper discussing the problems women have traditionally encountered in anthropology, psychology, social work, or sociology; and how this may or may not impact your career (Final essay question). Due the final week of class. 15%

  4. Class participation and discussion. 10%

Name the famous psychologist, reformer, human rights activist, and State Duma Deputy assassinated in 1998.

Answer

Obstacles, Issues, Concerns:

Traditional Women's Role as Daughter, Wife, and Mother
The Family Claim
Marriage vs. Career

Problems for Women with Graduate Education
Only Male Applicants Need Apply
Stereotyping and Discrimination
Attribution
Minimal Mentoring

Specific Career Difficulties for Women
The Myth of Meritocracy in Science
Collegial Exclusion
Stereotyping and Discrimination

Relevant Resources:

Bogat, G. A., & Redner, R. L. (1985). How mentoring affects the professional development of women in psychology. Professional Psychology: Research & Practice, 16, 851-859.

Bryan, A. I. (1946). Women in American psychology: Factors affecting their careers. Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences, Series 2, 9, 19-23.

Eberts, C. G., & Gray, P. H. (1982). Evaluating the historical treatment of female psychologists of distinction using citation analysis and textbook coverage. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 20, 7-10.

Furumoto, L. (1984). Review of Women scientists in America: Struggles and strategies to 1940. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 20, 238-240.

Furumoto, L. (1987). On the margins: Women and the professionalization of psychology in the United States, 1890-1940. In M. G. Ash & W. R. Woodward (Eds.), Psychology in twentieth century thought and society (pp. 93-113). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gilbert, L. A., & Rossman, K. M. (1992). Gender and the mentoring process for women: Implications for professional development. Professional Psychology: Research & Practice, 23, 233-238.

Guthrie, R. (1976). Even the rat was white. New York: Harper & Row.

Over, R. (1983). Representation, status, and contributions of women in psychology: A bibliography. Psychological Documents, 13(2), MS 2473.

Scarborough, E., & Furumoto, L. (1987). Untold lives: The first generation of American women psychologists. New York: Columbia University Press.

Swin, J. K., & Sanna, L. J. (1996). He's skilled, she's lucky: A meta-analysis of observers' attributions for women's and men's successes and failures. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 507-519.

Name the first woman and the first African American psychologist to hold the position of director of the U.S. Peace Corps.

Answer

Readings and Resources Concerning Early Women Psychologists - http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/bibliography.html

Society of Experimental Psychology - Women were not admitted until after the death of the Society's founder, E. B. Titchener, in 1929.
Can you find Margaret Floy Washburn?

Web resources:

Classics in the History of Psychology: An internet resource of original full-text documents developed by Christopher D. Green York University, Toronto, Canada - http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/topic.htm#women. Includes the following:

Lovelace, Ada. (1843). Notes by the translator [to L.F. Menabrea's "Sketch of the analytical engine invented by Charles Babbage, Esq."]. Scientific Memoirs, 3, 666-731.

Introduction to Menabrea/Lovelace (1842/1843) by Christopher D. Green

Jastrow, Joseph.. (1891). A study in mental statistics. New Review, 5, 559-568.

Nevers, Cordelia C. & Calkins, Mary W. (1895). Dr. Jastrow on community of ideas of men and women. Psychological Review, 2, 363-367.

Jastrow, Joseph. (1896). Community of ideas of men and women. Psychological Review, 3, 68-71.

Calkins, Mary Whiton. (1896a). Association: An essay analytic and experimental. Psychological Review Monographs Supplement, 1 (2).

Calkins, Mary Whiton. (1896b). Community of ideas of men and women. Psychological Review, 3, 426-430.

Thompson, Helen Bradford. (1903). The mental traits of sex.

Hall, G. Stanley. (1904). Adolescent girls and their education. From Adolescence: Its psychology and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion, and education (Vol. 2, Chapter 17).

Ladd Franklin, Christine. (1904). Endowed professorships for women. Publications of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, Series III, No. 9, pp. 53-61.

Gordon, Kate. (1905). Wherein should the education of a woman differ from that of a man. School Review, 13, 789-794.

Calkins, Mary Whiton. (1906). A reconciliation between structural and functional psychology. Psychological Review, 8, 61-81.

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, 1, 12-20.

Calkins, Mary Whiton (1908b). Psychology as science of self. II: The nature of the self. Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 3, 64-68.

Calkins, Mary Whiton (1908c). Psychology as science of self. III: The Description of Consciousness. Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 5, 113-122.

Ladd Franklin, Christine. (1908). Report of the committee on the endowment of fellowships. From "Proceedings" in the Publications of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, Series III, No. 17, pp. 143-146.

Woolley, Helen Thompson. (1910). A Review of the recent literature on the psychology of sex. Psychological Bulletin, 7, 335-342.

Hollingworth, Leta S. (1914a). Functional periodicity: An experimental study of the mental and motor abilities of women during menstruation.

Hollingworth, Leta S. (1914b). Variability as related to sex differences in achievement: A critique. American Journal of Sociology, 19, 510-530.

Calkins, Mary Whiton. (1915). The self in scientific psychology. American Journal of Psychology, 26, 495-524.

Hollingworth, Leta S. (1916). Social devices for impelling women to bear and rear children. American Journal of Sociology, 22, 19-29.

Hollingworth, Leta S. (1922). Differential action upon the sexes of forces which tend to segregate the feebleminded. Journal of Abnormal Psychology & Social Psychology, 17, 35-57.

Howes, Ethel Puffer. (1922). Accepting the universe. Atlantic Monthly, 129, 444-453.

Washburn, Margaret Floy. (1922). Introspection as an objective method. Psychological Review, 29, 89-112.

Jones, Mary Cover. (1924). A laboratory study of fear: The case of Peter. Pedagogical Seminary, 31, 308-315.

Introduction to Jones (1924) by Alexandra Rutherford.

Calkins, Mary Whiton. (1930). Autobiography of Mary Whiton Calkins. In C. Murchison (Ed.), History of psychology in autobiography (Vol. 1, pp. 31-62). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press.

Washburn, Margaret Floy. (1930). Autobiography of Margaret Floy Washburn. In C. Murchison (Ed.), History of psychology in autobiography (Vol. 2, pp. 333-358). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press.

Women in Psychology by Layli Phillips of the University of Georgia. (Short biographies and CVs of significant women psychologist) - http://teach.psy.uga.edu/dept/student/parker/PsychWomen/wopsy.htm

Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society Š my studentÕs website - http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/women.html

Whose famous father refused to emotionally or financially support his daughter's quest for either an undergraduate or graduate education because he didn't think she was very bright?

Answer