Mary Cover Jones
American developmental psychologist known for early work on removing children's fears
American developmental psychologist who reported in 1924 that a three-year-old's fear of a rabbit could be reduced by feeding him while the rabbit was brought gradually closer. She later worked on the Oakland Growth Study at Berkeley.
Why this person matters
Jones's 1924 case study of 'Peter' is taught as an early step towards behaviour therapy, and it is often set beside Little Albert as a study that tried to remove a fear rather than create one. Her later longitudinal work followed about 200 children from puberty through adolescence.
Main contributions
The case of Peter
In 'A laboratory study of fear: The case of Peter' (1924) she tested several fear-reduction procedures on a three-year-old afraid of a white rabbit. The most successful was direct conditioning: Peter ate a favourite food while the rabbit was brought gradually closer, until he could touch it without fear.
Oakland Growth Study
The study began in the early 1930s and followed about 200 fifth and sixth graders from puberty through adolescence. Jones worked on it at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was affiliated from 1927 to 1960.
Context and limits
The Peter study is a single-case report from 1924. Psychology's Feminist Voices says a 1919 lecture in which Watson described the Little Albert work strengthened her wish to study psychology, and that she became known as an early figure in behaviour therapy. The sources read do not assess how directly later therapies such as systematic desensitisation drew on her method, so no direct line is claimed. The two sources date the start of the Oakland study to 1932 and 1933.
In your introductory course
Treatment and therapy.Appears in the learning and therapy chapters as the counterpart to Little Albert, an early example of reducing a conditioned fear.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 1.2. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1924
Published 'A laboratory study of fear: The case of Peter'.
- 1926
Received her PhD from Columbia University.
- 1927
Joined the University of California, Berkeley, as a research associate.
- 1960
Served as president of the APA Division of Developmental Psychology.
- 1968
Received the APA G. Stanley Hall Award.
Sources
- Psychology's Feminist Voices, Mary Cover JonesSociety or association. Institutional biography inspected.
- Wikipedia, Little Albert experimentReference work. Reference article inspected.