While the psychology of today reflects the disciplines rich and varied history, the origins of psychology differ

significantly from contemporary conceptions of the field. In order to gain a full understanding of psychology, you need to spend some time exploring its history and origins. When you read many introductions to psychology history, one of the first things you may notice is the fact that there are relatively few women mentioned. The contributions of many of psychology's most eminent female thinkers have long been ignored, but that is starting to change as more history texts begin to recognize women such as Karen Horney, Mary Ainsworth, Leta Hollingworth and Christine Ladd-Franklin in their pages. The following are just a few of the women who have made a mark on psychology. Mary Whiton Calkins is probably best-known as the first woman president of the American Psychological Association, but she made many more contributions to the field as well. She studied had Harvard with famous teachers including William James and Hugo Munsterberg. Despite completing all of the requirements for a doctorate degree in psychology, Harvard refused to grant her degree simply because she was a woman. When psychology was first established as a science separate from biology and philosophy, the debate over how to describe and explain the human mind and behavior began. Structuralism emerged as the first school of thought and some of the ideas associated with the structuralism school were advocated by the founder of the first psychology lab, Wilhelm Wundt. One of Wundt's students, and a man named Edward B. Titchener, would later go on to formally establish and name structuralism, although he broke away from many of Wundt's ideas. Almost immediately other theories surfaced to vie for dominance in psychology. In response to structuralism, an American perspective emerged under the influence of thinkers such as Charles Darwin and William James. In 1906, Mary Whiton Calkins published an article in Psychological Review asking for reconciliation between these two schools of thought. Structuralism and functionalism were not so different, she argued, since both are principally concerned with the conscious self. Despite this, aspersions continued to be cast by both sides. William James wrote that structuralism had plenty of school, but no thought (James, 1904), while Wilhelm Wundt dismissed functionalism as literature. Eventually both of these schools of thought lost dominance in psychology, replaced by the rise of behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and humanism. .

Best Known For:

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. 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.

Early Years: Mary Whiton Calkins began Smith College in 1882 as a sophomore. The 1983 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. Mary Whiton Calkins was definitely a woman before her time. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, this woman put forth the effort and determination to become someone to inspire others and to help advance the new science of Psychology. Being a woman at this time did not make life easier, but that did not hinder Calkins from setting goals, reaching them, and speaking up about womens rights. <>Mary was born in Hartford, Connecticut on March 30, 1863, but grew up in Buffalo, New York to a close-knit white family. Her father was a Presbyterian minister in Buffalo, but in 1880 he became part of a Congregational church in Newton, Massachusetts where the family resided permanently (Zedler, 1995). Mary had four younger siblings to whom she had a close relationship. Marys education, like many scholars, was obtained through varies institutions. Mary finished high school in Massachusetts and began undergraduate work at Smith College. Due to the unfortunate death of her sister, Maud, Mary took off a year from Smith. During that year, Mary tutored two of her brothers and also studied Greek. She returned to Smith with senior-standing and graduated with the rest of her class one year later. After completion of her undergraduate work with a concentration in Philosophy and Classics in 1885, Mary spent about a year traveling Europe, partly with her family and partly with Abby Leach, a teacher from Vassar College (Zedler, 1995). During this time they visited Italy and Greece, along with other places of interest.

Mary then began teaching as a Greek tutor at Wellesley College, a liberal arts college for women, until she was approached by a professor in the Philosophy department to consider teaching a new sub discipline of Philosophy called Psychology (Zedler, 1995). Mary decided to rise to this challenge with the requirement being that she studies for one year in a psychology program. Women at this time were not treated equally and even though Mary had much support from family, male professors, and friends, she still had a difficult time getting the education she desired.

In 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. The difficulty with this was that there were few psychology programs available at the time, and even fewer that would accept women applicants. She initially considered studying abroad, but abandoned that idea. Distance and lack of a psychology lab dissuaded her from attending programs at Yale and the University of Michigan. After being invited by William James to sit-in on some of his lectures at Harvard, Calkins formally requested that she be allowed to sit-in on these lectures. She was initially refused by the administration of Harvard, but both her father and the President of Wellesley College wrote to Harvard on her behalf. 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. While at Harvard, she attended lectures given by William James and Josiah Royce and studied experimental psychology with Dr. Edmund Sanford of Clark University. Still interested in pursuing her psychology studies, Calkins again requested that she be allowed to study at Harvard with Hugo Munsterberg. Her request was granted in 1892, but with the provision that she was admitted only as a guest, not as a student.

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 Titchener, who claimed credit for its development. 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. Later that same year, Calkins returned to Wellesley College where she continued to teach until her retirement in 1927. Contributions to Psychology: 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, 495-524. 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.

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. Among her major contributions to psychology are the invention of the paired associate's technique and her work in self-psychology. 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. Mary Whiton Calkins is probably best-known as the first woman president of the American Psychological Association, but she made many more contributions to the field as well. Mary Whiton Calkins is probably best-known as the first woman president of the American Psychological Association, but she made many more contributions to the field as well. Her experiences represent the difficulty and discrimination faced by many women in the early days of psychology. Despite fulfilling the requirements of a doctoral degree and receiving unanimous approval from a thesis committee that included William

James, Josiah Royce and Hugo Munsterberg, Harvard refused to grant Calkins her degree because she was a woman. Regardless of this, Calkins went on to have a successful and influential career in psychology. She invented the paired-associate technique, contributed to dream research, advocated self psychology, and wrote more than 100 professional papers on topics in both psychology and philosophy. Throughout psychology's relatively brief history, there have been many famous psychologists who have left their mark both on psychology and on the world at large. While some of these individuals do not necessarily fit today's definition of a 'psychologist', a term which indicates a doctoral-level degree in psychology, their influence on psychology is without question. Learn more about psychologists by browsing through this list of some of the most famous thinkers in psychology history