Mary Whiton Calkins facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mary Whiton Calkins
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| Born | March 30, 1863 |
| Died | February 26, 1930 (aged 66) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Bachelor of Arts in classics and philosophy, unawarded PhD in psychology (see text) |
| Alma mater | Smith College, then Harvard University unofficially (see text) |
| Occupation | Professor of psychology and philosophy |
| Board member of | President of the American Psychological Association, President of the American Philosophical Association |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Wellesley College |
| Thesis | Association. An essay analytic and experimental. (1896) |
| Doctoral advisor | Hugo Münsterberg |
| Other academic advisors |
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Mary Whiton Calkins (/ˈkɔːlkɪnz, ˈkæl-/; March 30, 1863 – February 26, 1930) was an American philosopher and psychologist. Her work helped us understand memory, dreams, and the idea of "the self." In 1903, other psychologists ranked her among the top fifty in her field.
Mary Calkins faced challenges because she was a woman. Harvard University refused to give her a Ph.D. (a high-level university degree) even though she completed all the work. This was because Harvard did not officially accept women as students at the time.
Despite this, Calkins made history for women in psychology. She set up the first psychology lab for women at Wellesley College. She was also the first woman to lead both the American Psychological Association and the American Philosophical Association. She taught psychology and philosophy at Wellesley College for 40 years.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Mary Whiton Calkins was born on March 30, 1863, in Hartford, Connecticut. She was the oldest of eight children. Her parents were Wolcott and Charlotte Whiton Calkins. Mary was very close to her family. In 1880, her family moved to Newton, Massachusetts, where she lived for the rest of her life.
Mary's father, a minister, was very involved in her education. In 1882, she started at Smith College. She took a year off in 1883 after her sister died. During this time, she studied on her own and tutored her brothers. She also had private lessons in Greece.
In 1884, she returned to Smith College. She graduated with a degree in classics (ancient Greek and Roman studies) and philosophy. After graduating, Mary traveled through Europe for 18 months. She explored Leipzig, Italy, and Greece. She used this time to study modern Greek and classics.
When she came back to Massachusetts, her father helped her get a job at Wellesley College. Wellesley was a college only for women. She started as a tutor in the Greek department. She later became a teacher there for three years. A philosophy professor noticed her excellent teaching skills. This professor offered her a job to teach psychology. Psychology was a new subject in the philosophy department. Mary accepted, but only if she could study psychology for a year first.
Studying Psychology
Even though women had more chances to go to college then, Mary still faced unfair treatment. It was hard for her to get a psychology degree. She looked into programs at other universities. These included the University of Michigan, Yale University, and Clark University. She really wanted to study in a lab. At the time, only Clark and Harvard had psychology labs.
She wanted to go to Harvard because it was close to her home. Harvard did not allow women to be official students. But her father and Wellesley's president wrote letters for her. Because of this, Harvard let her attend classes as a guest. She also took classes at Harvard Annex, which later became Radcliffe College.
Learning from the Best
A professor named Josiah Royce encouraged Mary to take classes with William James at Harvard. James was a very famous psychologist. But Harvard's president, Charles William Eliot, did not want women and men to learn in the same room. After pressure from James, Royce, and Mary's father, she was allowed to join. But she was still only a guest, not a registered student.
Mary began her serious study of psychology with William James. This was shortly after his famous book, The Principles of Psychology, came out in 1890. James's ideas greatly impressed her. He helped her start her journey in psychology. She became very interested in the idea of "the self."
Mary also studied with Edmund Sanford from Clark University. Sanford taught her how to do experiments in a lab. He also helped her set up the first psychology lab for women at Wellesley College.
The First Psychology Lab for Women
In 1891, Mary Calkins returned to Wellesley. She became a psychology instructor in the philosophy department. That same year, she opened the first psychology lab founded by a woman. It was also the first lab at a women's college. The lab was in the attic of College Hall. It cost only $200 to set up, much less than other labs at the time.
Her first psychology course was very popular. Over fifty students signed up. They learned about different areas of psychology. They also did experiments on topics like sensation and association.
Sadly, a fire broke out in a nearby physics lab. Mary's lab was destroyed, but no one was hurt. The lab was rebuilt, and later, Eleanor Gamble took over running it.
Research on Dreams and Memory
While studying with Sanford, Mary did a research project on dreams. She and Sanford recorded their dreams for seven weeks. They used alarm clocks to wake up at different times at night. They wrote down their dreams as soon as they woke up. They found that dreams mostly showed people and places from recent life. They rarely had deep hidden meanings.
Mary's dream research was even mentioned by Sigmund Freud. Freud was a famous psychologist who developed his own ideas about dreams.
Mary also studied memory. She invented a method called the "paired-associations technique." This method is still used today to study how people learn. In her experiments, she showed people pairs of colors and numbers. She found that numbers seen often with a certain color were remembered best. This was more important than how bright the color was or how recently it was seen.
Her work on paired associations was her doctoral dissertation. A dissertation is a long research paper required for a Ph.D.
The Harvard Ph.D. Refusal
Mary Calkins completed all the requirements for a Ph.D. at Harvard. Her professors, including William James, strongly recommended her for the degree. James even said her exam was "the most brilliant" they had ever had. However, Harvard University refused to give her the degree. This was only because she was a woman. The university president believed men and women should be educated separately.
In 1902, Radcliffe College offered Ph.D. degrees to Mary and three other women. These women had finished their studies at Harvard but were denied degrees because of their gender. The other three women accepted. But Mary Calkins refused. She believed that Radcliffe should not offer degrees that Harvard denied. She felt that accepting it would go against her belief in equal education.
She wrote that she admired the other women and found it inconvenient not to have a Ph.D. But she still believed it was wrong for Radcliffe to give a degree that Harvard wouldn't. As of 2015, Harvard University still has not given her the degree, even after her death.
Later Career and Contributions
After her studies, Mary returned to Wellesley in 1895. She became an associate professor of psychology. Two years later, she became a full professor of both psychology and philosophy.
She wrote several important books. These included An Introduction to Psychology (1901) and philosophical works like The Persistent Problems of Philosophy (1907).
In 1905, she was elected president of the American Psychological Association. In 1918, she became president of the American Philosophical Association. She was the first woman to lead both of these important groups. She also received honorary degrees from Columbia University and Smith College.
The Self in Psychology
One of Mary Calkins' most important ideas was her "self-psychology." Starting in 1900, she began to describe psychology as the "science of the self." She spent many years trying to define the self. She concluded that it was hard to define. But she saw it as a "totality," a unique being.
At the time, other ideas like structuralism and functionalism were popular in psychology. Calkins' self-psychology was influenced by William James's ideas about different parts of the self. It also drew from Josiah Royce's idea that we define ourselves through talking with others.
Her idea of self-psychology was not very popular at the time. Many psychologists did not think the "self" or "soul" was important to study. But Mary Calkins never lost interest in it. She believed that studying the self could help people in many ways. This included their religion and morals. She thought that looking inward, or "introspection," was key.
She believed that self-psychology could be studied experimentally. However, she did not do lab experiments on it herself. She hoped her ideas could bring different schools of psychology together.
Personal Life and Legacy
Outside of her work, Mary Calkins was a strong supporter of women's rights. She was a suffragist, meaning she actively fought for women's right to vote. She argued that denying women the right to vote was unfair and illogical in a democratic country.
She was also a pacifist, meaning she believed in peace and opposed war. She was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union. During World War I, a colleague at Wellesley was fired for being a pacifist. Mary offered to resign, saying she held the same views. But Wellesley's president and board refused her resignation.
Mary Calkins worked at Wellesley College for 40 years. She retired in 1929. She passed away in 1930. She left behind a legacy of four books and over one hundred papers. These works were equally divided between psychology and philosophy. She is remembered for her important contributions and her fight for equality in education.
See also
In Spanish: Mary Whiton Calkins para niños
