When did Mary Whiton Calkins go to school?
She was raised in Buffalo, New York until the age of 17, when her family moved to Massachusetts. Calkins began studying at Smith College in 1882, and she graduated in 1885 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy.
Did Mary Whiton Calkins graduate from Harvard?
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.
When did Mary Whiton Calkins study at Harvard?
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.
What did Mary Calkins study?
In 1891 she established at Wellesley one of the earliest laboratories for experimental psychology in the country and the first in a women's college. Her own work in the field dealt primarily with such topics as space and time consciousness, emotion, association, colour theory, and dreams.
Who was denied a PhD in psychology?
Mary Whiton CalkinsIn 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....Mary Whiton CalkinsOccupationProfessor of psychology and philosophy18 more rows
Why does Harvard still refuse to award Calkins her PhD?
She was the first female president of both the American Psychological Association and the American Philosophical Association. However, Harvard refused to officially recognize her as a student and grant her degree because she was a woman.
Who was the first woman to study psychology?
Margaret Floy Washburn (July 25, 1871 – October 29, 1939), leading American psychologist in the early 20th century, was best known for her experimental work in animal behavior and motor theory development....Margaret Floy WashburnDoctoral advisorEdward B. Titchener7 more rows
Who was the first African American to earn a doctorate in psychology?
Francis 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.
Who is the first female to earn a doctoral degree in psychology in the United States?
Margaret Floy WashburnMargaret Floy Washburn was the first woman to earn a doctoral degree in American psychology (1894) and the second woman, after Mary Whiton Calkins, to serve as APA President.
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.
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 Whiton Calkins believe?
Calkins believed that the conscious self was the primary focus of psychology. 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.
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 .
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 .
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.
Who is James Lacy?
James Lacy, MLS, is a fact checker and researcher. Mary Whiton Calkins was an American psychologist who became the first female president of the American Psychological Association.
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 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 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 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.
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?
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.
Where was Mary Calkins born?
Professional Life. Calkins was born in Hartford, Connecticut on March 30, 1863. She was raised in Buffalo, New York until the age of 17, when her family moved to Massachusetts. Calkins began studying at Smith College in 1882, and she graduated in 1885 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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 ...
Who tutored Calkins?
Notably, the male students dropped out, leaving William James to tutor Calkins individually. The Harvard psychology faculty held an unofficial dissertation defense for Calkins in 1895. Afterward, they recommended her for a doctorate but Harvard refused to award the degree.
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.
What is Emily Cummins' degree?
Emily Cummins received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and French Literature and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology. She has instructor experience at Northeastern University and New Mexico State University, teaching courses on Sociology, Anthropology, Social Research Methods, Social Inequality, and Statistics for Social Research.
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 ...
Who is Mary Whiton Calkins?
Mary Whiton Calkins was born on March 30, 1863, in Hartford, Connecticut. She was very close with her family. They moved to Newton, Massachusetts, from New York in 1880 when her father got a new job as a Presbyterian minister in the area. In 1882, Calkins started her sophomore year at the Smith College, where she studied for a year.
Mary Whiton Calkins and Her Doctorate
Calkins was president of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Americal Philosophical Association but never actually got her doctorate. She studied at Harvard University, and they didn’t grant degrees for women until 1899. In fact, she was not technically allowed to even attend classes at Harvard.
Best Known Work
- 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.
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. The difficulty with this was that there were few psychology programs available a…
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