6: Women in Psychology Flashcards
(19 cards)
How did history develop as a field with the feminist movement?
While previous history focused on great men, the feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s wanted to learn more about our “foremothers”
Who was Elizabeth Scaraborough?
She was a historian who was important in asking where woman of history were. She also asked why female contributions seemed to be of less value than males. She wrote the “Untold lives: the first generation of American women psychologists”
What were the obstacles women faced in history and why?
Aristotle described men as rulers and women as followers. Science reaffirmed these sorts of societal attitudes, suggesting that intellectual capacity and reproductive capacity contradicted each other. Therefore, men were more scientific since women, by default, were more child rearers (and emotional lol). Women were put into roles with even scientific women having to appear feminine, but this gradually changed as women did more “manly” things like sport. There was also, the career-family dilemma. Women were also not paid or hired as much as they would have children (and leave anyway), they were expected to have low performance and emotional instability, put herself/future of humanity in danger, there would not be enough work for everyone if women joined the workforce and families would have double income (unfair to single income houses).
What helped raise women’s positions in science?
Early attempts to promote women were faced with resistance, with early papers by women denouncing sex differences not being published. However, progress was being made as the suffragist movement pushed to demand women the right to vote. Although to make progress in scientific societies, they often had to distance themselves from the suffragist movement. But the National Council for Women Psychologists was formed in the 1940s, affording the space. The 1960’s led a feminist movement where sex differences were questioned as being innate, when in many aspects they were social. There was also a section and more equality for women in APA.
What was the Career-Family Dilemma?
The idea that there is a social pressure for women to marry, have children, and to take care of them at home. There was then less time to work (the woman problem). There was also then an incompatibility with the uterus and the brain (mental efforts and family). This also leads to low expected intellectual capacity for women even in the sciences (the Mathilda effect: credits were put to a man) and they were questioned about their values (you are egoistic by not focusing on your family than children).
How did women first join the psychological laboratory?
They were first the experimental subjects, supports of researchers and researchers themselves. This was because they did not need to be paid, non-experts (natural reactions), trustworthy, well-educated nonetheless, patient and had a lot of free time.
Who was Lucy May Day Boring?
She was an intelligent woman who earned her doctoral degree and worked in a laboratory and lecturer. But, after marrying Edwin Boring and having their child together, she focused on her family and abandoned science - only supporting her husband.
How did we still find women in the sciences back in the day despite these obstacles?
Mainly due to the springboard strategy, where women supported researchers until they were encouraged to get a degree and were successful in networking.
Who was Mary W Calkins?
She was a philosopher, psychologist and president of APA. She was first educated in philosophy and wanted to study psychology at Harvard, where her father supported her to talk with William James, allowing her in despite previous refusal. However, her peers did not want her in lectures as she was distracting, saying they wouldnt join if she was there. James then said, fine, she will be my only student. She never married, and despite being unanimously considered well for a pHD, Harvard never gave her one cause she was a woman. She stopped working to take care of her parents, as was with most unmarried women who worked.
What did Calikins take issue with with Jastrow?
The results of his experiments suggested that ment used words that were more scientific and related to professions and women were more on clothing, child rearing etc. Showing that women and men had mental associations to these fields, justifying social roles. Calkins disagreed that they were innate and that they were not as strong as Jastrow suggested.
Who was Helen Thompson Woolley?
She was encouraged into academics and wanted to study how to cure social ills. Where she studied at university also favoured women, where she was encouraged to work with Angell. She researched trait differences between men and women and found it to be slight and there to be more significance within the groups than between. She suggested the environment played a role. It was the first paper to examine widely-held assumptions between the sexes; although it was not accepted. She was hospitalised for a psychotic break due to the stress of family, work and reputation due to being a woman.
Who was Margaret F. Washburn?
She was the first woman to be granted a PhD in psychology and was the second woman to be a APA president. She was famous for her book called “The Animal Mind” which was not her own work, but a compilation of hundreds of thousands of research on animal behaviour and measures.
Who were some women who were practical psychologists?
- Anna Freud
- Helena Antipoff
- Mamie Phipps Clark
Who was Mamie Phipps Clark?
During her master’s thesis, she became interested in the field of developmental psychology. Her and her husband worked as a team to conduct research on children and were both active in the civil rights movement. They were famous in the 1940s for using dolls to study children’s attitudes about race and eventually continued a legal movement to remove segregation from schools.
What was stated in “A Review of the Recent Literature on the Psychology of Sex” by Woolley?
She determines that research does not confirm sex differences. In Dr. Mall’s paper, it was determined that there was barely a difference between female and male brains except for the gyri/sulci. The differences between motor functions, sensory and intellectual processes were also exaggerated, with even differences between handwriting considered to be more social than innate and often due to other circumstances and not sex. She also said that literature was becoming more critical, objective and respectful of evidence in its tone, and there is a consensus against biological determinism and sex differences. She thinks that the future will no longer view differences in sex. She also finds it inconsistent how women supposedly are superior in emotional/moral matters but arent granted the same rights and despite being seen as more intellectually capable, they are not treated the same.
What does Woolley mean by “lessen the chances of the best element to perpetuate itself”?
She summarises the idea of critics of educated women who argue that educated women would marry less and have fewer children, having less children from the most intelligent women and so society would suffer biologically.
What was written in “The Woman Problem”?
While E.G. Boring wrote about the challenges and expectations of women in psychology, he did not go against it and even blamed women for it.
What was M. P. Clarks philosophy and aims?
She wanted to help children to respect others and not be racially prejudiced. She developed this attitude when, despite being well off, she faced racial discrimination and segregation at school; where fights even broke out from racial tension. She also liked a challenge, being one of the first black women to get a PhD in psychology and working with well-known racists in order to get their knowledge. Garrett, the racist in question, would defend racial segregation in a court hearing while Mamie would be on the opposite side. She also wanted to help disadvantaged children and started the Northside Testing and Consultation Center (Center for Child Development) where she wanted to reframe “black people” as being strong, willing and courageous against the cultural deprivation hypothesis (uplift ideology).
What was Wellsey College?
The first all-women college to have scientific laboratories.
