Mary Whiton Calkins
American psychologist and philosopher
American psychologist who completed the requirements for a Harvard PhD in 1895 but was refused the degree because she was a woman, introduced the paired-associate technique and became president of the American Psychological Association in 1905.
Why this person matters
Calkins's paired-associate technique became a way to study learning. Her refused Harvard degree is a documented case of the exclusion of women from graduate training in early psychology.
Main contributions
Paired-associate technique
Her 1896 work on association introduced the technique of learning pairs of items so that presenting one prompts recall of the other. Georg Elias Müller criticised the method, then refined and adopted it as the 'hit method'.
Wellesley laboratory
In 1891 she founded a psychology laboratory at Wellesley, the first at a women's college. A college fire destroyed it in 1914.
Self psychology
She developed a personalistic system centred on the self, which she defined as the person who is conscious and experiences. Her first textbook, An Introduction to Psychology, appeared in 1901. James Angell objected to her exclusion of the body from the self.
Context and limits
Harvard did not admit women before 1900, so Calkins attended as a guest, studying with William James, Josiah Royce, Edmund Sanford and Hugo Münsterberg. Münsterberg's 1894 request to admit her as a PhD candidate was refused. After her 1895 examination the examiners unanimously recommended the degree, and Harvard still refused. She declined a Radcliffe doctorate in 1902, saying it was not equivalent. Harvard has refused later petitions.
In your introductory course
Memory.Appears in the memory chapter through paired associates and in the history chapter on women excluded from graduate training.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 1.2. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1891
Founded the Wellesley psychology laboratory.
- 1895
Completed Harvard PhD requirements; Harvard refused the degree.
- 1896
Published Association: An Essay Analytic and Experimental.
- 1905
Became president of the American Psychological Association, the first woman to hold the post.
Sources
- Psychology's Feminist Voices, Mary Whiton CalkinsSociety or association. Institutional biography inspected.
- University of British Columbia Department of Psychology, History in the making: UBC psychology students aim to right a wrongUniversity. Institutional biography inspected.
- Wikipedia, Mary Whiton CalkinsReference work. Reference article inspected.