when did mary whiton calkins die

Where did Mary Whiton Calkins live?

See Article History. 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. Calkins grew up mainly in Buffalo, New York, and moved with her family to Newton, Massachusetts, in 1880.

What year did Mary Whiton Calkins go to Smith College?

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.

How many books did Mary Whiton Calkins write?

Calkins served as a faculty member at Wellesley College for forty years until she retired in 1929. Calkins died in 1930 after writing four books and over a hundred papers that are evenly divided between the fields of psychology and philosophy. ^ Johnson, Deborah (1999). "Calkins, Mary Whiton".

What was Mary Whiton Calkins' pursuit of psychology?

Calkins' Pursuit of Psychology. After graduating from Smith College, Mary Whiton Calkins was hired to teach Greek at Wellesley College. She had been teaching for three years when she was offered she was offered a position teaching in the new area of psychology. In order to teach in psychology, she needed to study the subject for at least one year.

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How old was Mary Whiton Calkins when she died?

66 years (1863–1930)Mary Whiton Calkins / Age at death

What experiment did Mary Whiton Calkins do?

While working under Edmund C. Sanford, Calkins worked on a research project that involved studying the contents of dreams recorded in a seven-week period in the spring of 1891 (Furumoto, 1980). The research involved recording each night, immediately after waking from a dream, every remembered feature of it.

Who is Mary Whiton Calkins and why is she important?

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 is Mary Calkins known for in 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.

Who is the father of psychology?

Wilhelm WundtWilhelm Wundt is the man most commonly identified as the father of psychology.

Why was Mary Whitons denied a PhD?

Although she earned her PhD at Harvard under William James, Calkins was refused the degree by the Harvard Corporation (who continues to refuse to grant the degree posthumously) on the grounds that Harvard did not accept women.

Why did Harvard deny Mary Whiton Calkins?

In 1896 Münsterberg wrote to the president of Harvard that Calkins was, "one of the strongest professors of psychology in this country." 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 ...

What does self mean in psychology?

n. the totality of the individual, consisting of all characteristic attributes, conscious and unconscious, mental and physical. Apart from its basic reference to personal identity, being, and experience, the term's use in psychology is wide-ranging.

What are the 5 major domains of psychology?

The five major perspectives in psychology are biological, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive and humanistic.

What was the major accomplishment of Mary Whiton Calkins?

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 was the first female president of the American Psychological Association?

Mary Whiton Calkins: 1905 Mary Whiton Calkins was the 14th president of APA and the first woman to serve in that office.

Why was Calkins denied a PhD at Harvard?

In 1896 Münsterberg wrote to the president of Harvard that Calkins was, "one of the strongest professors of psychology in this country." 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 ...

What is self psychology theory?

Self psychology is a relatively new theory within the field of psychoanalysis. The name was chosen because of gradual recognition that the difficulties some people experience have to do with self-esteem regulation and maintenance of a solid sense of self in time and space, often referred to as self cohesion.

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.

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.

What did Calkins do after graduating?

Upon graduation, Calkins and her family took an eighteen-month trip to Europe, and she was able to explore Leipzig, Italy, and Greece. As she was majoring in Classics, Calkins took advantage of the opportunities and spent several months travelling 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. She worked as a tutor and eventually as a teacher in the Greek department for three years. A professor in the philosophy department noticed Calkins' excellent teaching and offered her a position to teach 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 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.

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.

How many dreams did Calkins have?

She recorded 205 dreams and Sanford 170.

When did 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. Advice from Sanford discouraged her from schools like Johns Hopkins and Clark, suggesting they were not likely to admit women as students, much like her experience at Harvard. Sanford did encourage Calkins to explore programs in Europe, making an inference that Hugo Münsterberg admitted female students to his laboratory in Freiburg, Germany (after seeing a picture of Münsterberg in his lab with a woman). After expressing her desire to work with Münsterberg to James, he revealed that Münsterberg would soon be coming to work at Harvard.

What did Mary Whiton Calkins do after she graduated from Smith College?

Calkins' Pursuit of Psychology. After graduating from Smith College, Mary Whiton Calkins was hired to teach Greek at Wellesley College. She had been teaching for three years when she was offered a position teaching in the new area of psychology. 2 . In order to teach in psychology, she needed to study the subject for at least one year.

What did Mary Calkins do?

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 .

What did Mary Calkins do to help the world?

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.

Who was the committee that approved the Calkins thesis?

In 1895, she presented her thesis, An experimental research on the association of ideas, to a graduate committee that included William James, Josiah Royce, and Hugo Munsterberg. Despite unanimous approval from the thesis committee, Harvard still refused to grant Calkins the degree she had earned. 1 .

Did Mary Whiton Calkins have a degree?

Despite Mary Whiton Calkins' contributions, Harvard maintains its refusal to grant the degree she earned and her influence on psychology is often overlooked by both scholars and students.

When was Miss Calkins' request approved?

The request was approved in 1890, although university records noted that "by accepting this privilege Miss Calkins does not become a student of the University entitled to registration" (Furumoto, 1980).

Who taught Greek at Wellesley College?

1887 - Began teaching Greek at Wellesley College. 1890 - Began attending lectures at Harvard taught by William James and Josiah Royce. 1892 - Admitted to Harvard as a "guest". 1895 - Presented thesis to Harvard faculty, but was denied a degree. 1927 - Retired from Wellesley College. Died on February 26, 1930 of cancer.

What did Mary Whiton Calkins do?

Throughout her life, Mary Whiton Calkins sought to achieve a balance between professional and social responsibilities. She allied herself with the political left and became involved in pacifist and socialist movements as well as causes such as the Sacco and Vanzetti case. As a woman who had enjoyed enormous professional success despite routine and institutionalized sexism, she was also highly sensitive to the obstacles that confronted all women in the workplace. She was an active suffragist and an outspoken feminist who decried the belief that there existed inherent differences in mental abilities of men and women.

Who was Mary Whiton Calkins' father?

Though in mid-19th century America the education of women was widely regarded as both a waste of time and potentially dangerous, Mary's devoted father Wolcott Calkins, a Presbyterian minister, and her mother Charlotte Whiton Calkins , an informally trained musician, believed wholeheartedly in the education of women. The result was an extremely nurturing family environment in which Calkins and her siblings flourished.

What was the first book that Calkins published?

In 1901, she published her first book, An Introduction to Psychology , which offered a more detailed treatment of experience from the perspective of "self psychology." The book argued against the prevailing behaviorist psychology, which denied the actual existence of a self and which held that consciousness consisted of bodily reactions. Not surprisingly, her book drew considerable professional criticism, attacking Calkins' concept of the self as unscientific and unverified. Despite the criticism, her emerging position in the field of psychology could not be denied. In a 1903 list of the 50 most prominent psychologists in America, Calkins ranked 12th, and in 1905 she was the first woman elected president of the American Psychological Association.

What was Mary Calkins' first contribution to psychology?

In 1898, Mary Calkins was promoted to full professor at Wellesley College. Two years later, she published an important paper, "Psychology as a Science of Selves," which was her first attempt to provide a systematic analysis of her emerging theory of the conscious self as the central fact of psychology. This new theory of "self psychology" was to be her most important contribution to psychology and one to which she devoted the next ten years of her life.

What was Mary Calkins' career?

The first half of Mary Calkins' professional career was preoccupied with the study of psychology; the last half was devoted to philosophy, especially metaphysics. Influenced by philosopher Josiah Royce 's idealism, she created her own system of "personalistic absolutism," which had two main principles: the first, that "the universe is through and through mental in character, that all that is real is ultimately mental, and accordingly personal in nature," and the second, that "the universe literally is one all-including (and accordingly complete) self of which all the lesser selves are genuine and identical parts, or members." She had already produced one book in philosophy in 1907, The Persistent Problem of Philosophy, which was reprinted five times, and over the next 20 years she published numerous articles in philosophical journals. In 1918, she published a study in ethics, The Good Man and The Good, which aimed at the general reader as well as professionals. That same year, she received further professional recognition as the first female elected president of the American Philosophical Association.

Who was the psychologist who taught Calkins to dream?

In 1890, Calkins also began working in the psychology laboratory at Clark University under the supervision of Edmund Sanford, her second important teacher. Calkins credited Sanford with educating her in the "details of laboratory experiments." Together, they conducted an experiment on dreams. Their conclusions, that dreams reproduce "in general the persons, places and events of recent sense perception" and that the dream is rarely "associated with that which is of paramount significance in one's waking experience," would later run counter to Sigmund Freud 's theories of dreams, which would eventually dominate psychological thought.

What was Mary Calkins' first attempt to provide a systematic analysis of her emerging theory of the conscious self?

In 1898, Mary Calkins was promoted to full professor at Wellesley College. Two years later, she published an important paper, "Psychology as a Science of Selves," which was her first attempt to provide a systematic analysis of her emerging theory of the conscious self as the central fact of psychology.

What was Mary Calkins famous for?

Calkins also served as President of the American Philosophical Association in 1918. Scholarly accomplishments include inventing the paired-associates technique ...

Where did Mary Calkins get her B.A.?

Calkins was from Massachusetts, where she earned her B.A. from Smith College in 1885, majoring in the classics and philosophy. In 1887 she was hired to teach philosophy at Wellesley College. Psychology was historically part of "mental philosophy" but in the 1880s an empirically-based experimental psychology was growing.

Why did Wellesley want Calkins to teach?

Wellesley wanted Calkins to learn more about the topic to teach a course in the new psychology. With the support of Harvard's psychology faculty, Harvard's president allowed Calkins to audit courses as a favor to Wellesley College and to her father, a prominent Presbyterian minister.

What degree did Calkins get?

Despite her record of achievements, Calkins is best known today for something she never received--a doctoral degree from Harvard University. The story has become a legend in academic psychology circles.

Did Calkins get a doctorate from Harvard?

Afterward, they recommended her for a doctorate but Harvard refused to award the degree. A few years later Calkins turned down the offer of a substitute doctoral degree from Harvard's sister institution, Radcliffe. As of 2015, petitions to award Calkins a posthumous degree from Harvard have proved unsuccessful.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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:

Overview

Background

Career

Personal life

See also

Notes

External links

Best Known Work

Timeline of Events

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.

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Calkins' Pursuit of Psychology

Career

Calkins' Contributions to Psychology

Selected Works