Free Essay

Women in Psychology

In:

Submitted By johnnyw023
Words 1571
Pages 7
Women in Psychology Paper
Johnny Williams
PSY310
January 9, 2012
Lillian Fillpot

Women in Psychology Paper A conversation of women in psychology can only be conducted with discussion of the many women who have contributed much of their lives to education as well as educating others with the knowledge that they have learned. This paper will define Inez Beverly Prosser, PhD, a woman who has made significant contributions to the field of psychology between the years 1850 and 1950. This paper will also cover and describe her background, theoretical perspective, and contributions to psychology. Inez Beverly Prosser was born on December 30th approximately 1895 within Texas; no one is for certain of her exact birth date all that is known is stated. Out of eleven brothers and sisters Inez was the first daughter to her parents. Her father, Samuel Andrew Beverly, always seem to find work as an attendant no matter where they moved to. Her mother, Veola Hamilton, stayed and turned their house into a beautiful home. The family continued to move when the children were little, first in 1900 to Yoakum in the south of Texas and in 1907 to Corpus Christi. Prosser and her oldest brother, Leon, came back to Yoakum to attend the high school. After finishing at the top of her class in 1910, Prosser enrolled at Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College to be found 45 miles northwest of Houston. In 1912, she graduated from College with a two year degree, and was now allowed to begin her lifelong dream of teaching.

Many African Americans at that time did not believe that college was attainable and rarely focused on attending college to pursue a degree. Inez Beverly Prosser had an enduring passion for education and was very appreciative of the power it presented for shifting lives. Her family considered to send her older brother Leon to college, believing that they could manage to pay for college for only one of their children. However, Inez’s desire was without a doubt much greater, and even her brother Leon persuaded his parents to pay for her instead to attend college and not for him. It proved to be a very excellent venture. Her ultimate accomplishments as an educationalist enabled her to donate her counsel and currency that helped five of her siblings graduate from college, and this act of generosity within itself was very remarkable for any point and time in our history for any race of people. Inez Beverly Prosser began her college work at a college named Prairie View A&M University, a historically black college northwest of Houston. With a two-year diploma, she began educating in Austin, Texas in 1913, first starting at a black elementary school and on to a high school. She completed her bachelor's degree at the Samuel Huston College in Austin in 1926. For the reason that segregated schools, Inez’s was required to leave Texas for graduate employment. She accomplished her master's degree at University of Colorado and completed her doctorate in psychology at the University of Cincinnati in 1933. She did not let segregated schools or anything associated with segregation stand in her way of achieving her education. She completed her dissertation on research that personality variables and examined self-esteem in coordinated pairs of African American middle school children with only partially the children having attended segregated schools and the other half attending integrated schools in the Cincinnati area. She accomplished that African American children fared enhanced in segregated schools with African American colleagues and black teachers. Specifically, she established that African American children from integrated schools qualified more social maladjustment, thought a reduced amount of security in their community associations and had less acceptable associations with their families. They were also more likely to believe second-rate at school, had less than acceptable relationships with their teachers and were more raring to go to leave school early. Her conclusions were very divisive in the decade’s primary to the Supreme Court decision in 1954 of the Brown vs. the Board of education case, although supported by some well-known African-Americans such as W.E.B. Dubois and Carter Woodson, who unenthusiastically approved segregated schools in anticipation of such time that detrimental attitudes of white teachers would satisfactorily adjust to put forward an optimistic experience for black children. She exhausted the last seven years of her life schooling in black colleges, first at Tillotson College in Austin, and at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss. She took a one-years depart of absence from Tougaloo to finish her PhD. She educated one more year and In September 1934, on her way to Mississippi after visiting family in Texas, she was killed in a car wreck near Shreveport, La. Even despite that her life was cut short, Inez Beverly Prosser was influential in supporting many black students in obtaining finances for college and for graduate study. The importance of her achievement in obtaining her PhD was acknowledged by her appearance on the cover of the publication of the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called the crisis, 1933. Prosser began the research for her doctoral dissertation, titled "Non-academic development of negro children in mixed and segregated schools," in November 1931. The assignment intended as a cohort to a dissertation completed in 1931 by Mary Crowley in which the educational attainment of African American students compared between integrated and segregated schools. Crowley, who was the Assistant Superintendent of Schools for Hamilton County in Ohio, helped Prosser get hold of permissions at a variety of schools to carry out her research. Even though Prosser and Crowley both asked about the differences between the segregated and integrated schools, Prosser payed close attention on non academic variables that definitely applied. Crowley had completed that there were no differences in students' educational accomplishment between the two types of schools; Prosser, on the contrary, found that African American students did change for the better in segregated schools. The students enrolled in ethnically diverse schools were found to be more withdrawn, strive more with social maladjustment, and come into contact with more disappointment with family and teacher relationships, among other factors. Prosser's investigation based on a small illustration size, 32 coordinated pairs of students, and accredited in her dissertation that some of her conclusions were based on non significant numerical outcomes. She further fulfilled that out of the ordinary personality types may do better in diverse schools. Although Prosser is commonly referred to as the first African-American woman to earn a PhD in Psychology, others believe that Ruth Winifred Howard was the first. The dissimilarity depends on how one defines a psychologist. Those who disagree that Howard, earning PhD at the University of Minnesota in 1934 is the first African-American woman to earn a PhD, cling to the view that a psychologist is someone who earned the degree contained by a psychology branch. In Prosser’s case, even though her dissertation study was in psychology, her doctoral teacher and other members of her working group were psychologists, and much of her assignments were in psychology, and this is why she is often deprived of her well-earned heading. Inspite of all of her accomplishments as it pertains to education; Inez Beverly Prosser’s found the time to become a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and the African Methodist Episcopal Church and was very active in both of these groups. On August 28, 1934, in a road trip going back home following a stop with her relatives in Texas, Prosser, by the side of her husband and sister, tangled in a head-on automobile accident. From the impact of the crash Prosser smashed into and ended up going through the windshield. She was taken to a Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana, to care for her injuries. However, inspite of her infirmary stay she died at the Hospital on September 5, 1934; a very sad day for her family and friends. Inez Beverly Prosser was merely 38 when she died, having just accomplished her doctoral degree the previous year. The dedication on her headstone at the Southern Memorial Park burial ground in San Antonio gives voice to the passing away of a talented future that her death represented her head stone reads as follows: "How many hopes lie buried here”, In honesty, a very befitting inscription for a person who dedicated her life’s work for the betterment and upliftment of people in general. A person can only imagine some of the obstacles faced because of the injustices that were very much factors at the time of her strive for education. Although her life was cut short, from the short time that she did have on this planet until the time of her untimely death, Inez Beverly Prosser without a doubt made a difference within her family as well as the many people of the world who have been fortunate enough to read some of her superior works. Knowing that we have no control of our time to live and to die, all we can do as people is attempt to make a positive impression on our fellow man as well as conduct ourselves in an orderly fashion in hopes to make a positive difference in many lives as possible. References Goodwin, C. J. (2008). A history of modern psychology (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Feministvoices. (). Retrieved from http://www.Feminisitvoices.com

.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Women in Psychology

...Women in Psychology Adrienne Martin PSY/310 Cassandra Robinson Introduction: Margaret Floy Washburn was born on July 25th, 1871 in New York..She was an only child who spent much of her time reading books and acquiring all the knowledge her small mind could handle .Her father was an Episcopal minister and he had a parish in a small Orange County village for two years. Her family then moved to a modest river city in Kingston, where she obtained her high-school education. This later led her to go on to Vassar College. After leaving New York she entered a public school and was wrongly entered into a grade that was too high where she had much trouble with mathematics but due to her diligence she entered high school at the age of twelve. Washburn decided to go to Vassar in 1886 for the fall semester of but at this point in time there were not any majors accepted in the curriculum at Vassar. Latin, , Math, Chemistry, English and Physics, were required during a student’s sophomore year; Ethics and Psychology in the senior year but there was not a requirement to continue in any of the other subjects. Margaret Floy Washburn, Psychology’s Feminist Voices. (www.feministvoices.com) In the conclusion of her senior term she discovered that she had two principal learning interests, the field science and the study...

Words: 1561 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Women in Psychology

...11 December 2012 Women in Psychology Over the years, women have become increasingly dominant in the field of psychology. According to the Women’s Bureau of the United States Department of Labor, in 2010 women made up 66.7% of the psychology. The most common types of psychology include clinical psychology, counseling psychology, school psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, developmental psychology, social psychology and experimental or research psychology. Even though there has been a major increase of women working in the field of psychology lately, things have not always been like this. Beth Doll, who has a PhD in psychology, remembers her difficulties when she was studying to get her PhD. Despite her impressive qualifications and a master's degree in clinical psychology, a doctorate advisor discouraged her from pursuing her PhD, worried she would forgo completing the program to start a family. Doll chose not to heed this advice and went on to complete her doctorate in school psychology in 1983. Doll says, “That simply won't happen today, in part because women have moved into some positions of power," She is now an educational psychology professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and chair of the Council of Directors of School Psychology Programs. Though there are advancements, women psychologists still earn about nine percent less than men. This number increases with experience level. There are still certain fields in psychology that are mainly male...

Words: 713 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Women in Psychology

...Women WOMEN IN PSYCHOLOGY There were many great women who made a contribution to psychology and the history of psychology. These great women were theorists, counselors, and pioneers. One of these women, who I find to be interesting Anna Freud, she was the creator of child psychoanalysis, Anna also completed the work which was a contribution of child psychology and also an understanding. Anna Freud, born on December 3, 1895, and her parents were Sigmund and Martha Freud. Anna had five brothers and sisters in which she was the youngest of the siblings. Anna’s relationship with her father was close, but with her mother and five siblings her relationship was tense. Anna attended a private school; she decided she was learning in that type of setting. Most of Anna’s education was from her father and his friends (http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/bio_annafreud.htm). Anna began working as an elementary teacher, after completing High School. Anna also translating her father’s work into German, she became interested, “ in child psychology and psychoanalysis” (http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/bio anna freud.htm). Anna’s hard work was influenced by work her father did, but the field of child psychoanalysis was created by Anna. Anna started her psychoanalytic practice the year of 1923, which was located in Province of Vienna, Austria. Later on Anna Freud served, “ chair of the Vienna Psycho-Analytic Society.” Anna had...

Words: 1404 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Women in Psychology

...Women in Psychology Paper Rex Little Psychology 310 History of Psychology 8/19/2011 Donna Allgood Women in Psychology Paper The woman I choose in psychology is Margaret Washburn. Margaret was well known as the first woman ever to be awarded a Ph.D. She was a great teacher and that alone would have made her worthy of the elevated status necessary for mention as a great woman in the field of psychology but she is also known by many contemporary psychologists and social science related people as an eminence whose works in the field are of extraordinary long-lasting importance. Margaret Washburn was born in Harlem, New York, July 25th 1871 and was an only child. She developed some of the most interesting theories about the relationship between motor development and mental activity. She worked with animals during her early schooling during some of her controversial studies wrote her book The Animal Mind (1904). She stated that “All psychic interpretation of animal behavior must be on the same analogy of human experience…Our acquaintance with the mind of animals rests upon the same basis as our acquaintance with the mind of our fellow man”(541). This was at a time when women were not supposed to express higher reasoning. One can only imagine the scrutiny she must have endured at hands of her peers and those in administrative positions with schools she was working from. There were many researchers around during this time who would have...

Words: 1540 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Psychology of Women

...The psychology of women has been studied, researched, analyzed, and critiqued for countless years. In the true sense of the word psychology, the psychology of women refers to the scientific study of mental behavior and functions that women have. My understanding on the psychology of women is that it consists of issues concerning gender, female identity, and other social and cultural factors. There are copious amounts of information to be learned about the psychology of women because in the past, along with many other issues, androcentric viewpoints were the focus. Historically, for instance, when the majority of psychologists would study an issue they would emphasize on the male or masculine interests and neglect women entirely. In the past this was the norm yet we have come to the realization that we are equals, albeit the conviction that some are being politically correct for the sake of being politically correct. The study of human behavior is now inclusive of all humans, unless specifically noted by gender, and is no longer male-dominated. When the majority of people hear the words sex and gender, they believe them to be closely related to each other, and some believe they are just synonymous. I was taught that this is a popular public misconception. Sex is considered a more scientific term that describes the physical attributes of an individual. On the contrary, gender has a more social impact. Gender is impacted by the cultural influences of women, societal...

Words: 622 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Women in Psychology

...Women in Psychology Tamara Walker University of Phoenix CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY: I certify that the attached paper is my original work. I affirm that I have not submitted any portion of this paper to any previous course, and neither has anyone else. I confirm that I have cited all sources from which I used language, ideas, and information, whether quoted verbatim or paraphrased. Any assistance I received while producing this paper has been acknowledged in the References section. I have obtained written permission from the copyright holder for any trademarked material, logos, images from the Internet, or other sources. I further agree that my name typed on the line below is intended to have, and shall have, the same validity as my handwritten signature.    Student's signature (name typed here is equivalent to a signature):  _ Tamara Walker__________________________     ___  Women in Psychology Psychology is continuously evolving within itself and the practice alone. Even though several men had dominated the field, women began to come onto the seen and began to make significant contributions to psychology. Psychology has been around for a very long time and throughout that time there have been some very influential women. The contributions of women in psychology have also been overlooked in much of psychology’s history. Many women have contributed to the way that people think, live and even their careers that they have chosen. Some of these women...

Words: 1369 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Women in Psychology

...Women in Psychology Susan Hall University of Phoenix PSY 310 Lillian Filpot May 03, 2012 Women in Psychology Nebraska native Leta Stetter Hollingworth was an amazing woman who met the challenges of her time head-on employing intelligence, common sense, observation, and scientific method. Throughout her career the thread of continuity for her pursuits was the subject of variability (Benjamin & Shields, 1886-1993). Commencing her career with a degree in literature and a teaching certificate, Leta detoured into the fields of sociology and psychology finding the additional degrees necessary tools for change. Leta was an early 20th century feminist psychologist and advocate for women’s rights. By 1911, her determination and use of scientific method yielded proof that women were equal to men in terms of their intellectual capabilities. She sought equality for clinical psychologists doggedly determined to construct a framework of professional practice standards. Application of the standards raised the practice to a level considered suitable for inclusion in the American Psychological Association during World War 1. Leta was a gifted and prolific writer who produced her own text books, generated scores of journal articles and wrote poetry. She loved her husband, Harry, and their devotion to each other is chronicled in the biography he wrote (Hollingworth, 1943). Beginnings Leta Settor Hollingworth was born on the plains of Nebraska on May 25, 1886. The rushing of...

Words: 2969 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Women in Psychology

...Women in Psychology When I think of psychology I think that a lot of the people who had significant contributions to the field of psychology were men but, many great women have also contributed to psychology and the history of psychology. Some of these women include theorists, counselors, and pioneers. Each woman contributed in many different ways. A lot of these women made significant contribution to the history of psychology between the years 1850 and 1950. People sometimes may often overlook the women in psychology’s history. One of the famous women in psychology was Margaret Washburn. Margaret Washburn was born on July 25, 1871 in Harlan in New York City. Margaret was well known in Psychology. She was the first women to earn a PH.D in Psychology. She was different then some women, she chooses to worry about her career instead of getting married and starting a family. She was similar to other women also though, she likes ballroom dancing, playing the piano, and painting when she was not busy with her career. Washburn spent most of her career life at Vassar College teaching. During her time there she published 134 articles and 66 book reviews/notices. “She was instrumental in the maturation of psychological endeavors as a scholarly and scientific endeavor.” ( Board of trustees of northern Illinois University, 2011). One of the best known publications was the animal mind. It was a book that was published that became the first textbook in comparative psychology that...

Words: 314 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Women in Psychology

...and research is best understood within the context of her upbringing and the zeitgeist of the time towards women, within the framework of self observation, the method of natural science, and associationism; and as the original thinker behind paired-associate learning and the partial resolution of the structuralism/functionalism controversy. Mary Calkins was 57 years-old before she was legally able to vote in the United States of America. Up until the early 20th century the role of woman was universally agree to be exclusively as a wife, mother, and caretaker for the elderly in the family (Goodwin, 2005). In fact, it was widely agreed that any intellectual pursuit beyond primary school could be physically harmful to women. However, by the time Calkins was 25 she was fluent in English, German, French, and Greek; well-traveled and well-read, and a graduate of Smith College in western Massachusetts. Mary Calkins was the eldest of five siblings and the daughter of a Congregationalist minister. The friction between her academic upbringing and the gender stereotyping of her time started shortly after she began her first academic position teaching Greek at the all-girls Wellesley College. Wellesley College, in keeping with the laboratory psychology and experimental psychology blossoming in Europe and America, wanted to begin to offer courses consistent with the new psychology. To that end, Calkins found...

Words: 1526 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Women in Psychology

...Running head: WOMEN IN PSYCHOLOGY PAPER 1 . Women in Psychology Linda Wise June 7, 2012 Running head: WOMEN IN PSYCHOLOGY PAPER 2 Women in Psychology In the twentieth century, the thoughts and ideas from the different gender (women) were being heard, as the women started to educate themselves, it gave them the ability to influence decision making, which in that day was made only made by men. Women also had to push and fight to be heard when it came to politics and the economy issues. Soon they also fought for independency rights, which led them to the study of Psychology, which again was an aspect that had major effects on women who strived for competitive workplace positions. As Psychology grew, there were many times that educated women would make a significant breakthrough and realization in the field, but would go unrecognized or their work would be unimportant in the eyes of male researchers. There was one woman that broke through and was heard, her name is Anna Freud, her father was Sigmund Freud, a leader or what other would call him “fathers” of Psychology, Many thought the reason she was heard was because of her father’s reparation. Many believed that her father influenced his ideas while she was a child(http://www.biography.com/people/anna-freud-9302339). Anna Freud was born on December 3, 1895 and was the youngest daughter of Sigmund and Martha Freud. Anna had five siblings, but she was the liveliest and most mischievous of the bunch...

Words: 1265 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Women in Psychology

...Women in Psychology Traci Boyzuck PSY/310 May 19th, 2014 University of Phoenix Women in Psychology When it comes to the history of psychology and the individuals that helped the science become what it is today, many people think of the men that pioneered the discipline. When asked about an individual that has had an impact on psychology the average answer will be that of a man’s name, perhaps Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung; but there have been many women who have taken the reigns and added a great deal of information and insight when it comes to the use of psychology. One of those women is Karen Horney, a woman who gave much insight to many areas of psychology during her time. Karen Horney was born in 1885, in Hamburg, Germany. Her family was an upper middle class family, her father a sea captain and her mother a more free-thinking woman that encouraged her daughter to follow her dreams and pursue her medical career, which was slightly unusual in that time.(Smith, 2007) Karen Horney was dedicated to her studies, she was once quoted as saying “if I can’t be pretty, I decided I would be smart.” Karen started her academic career in medical school in 1906, in 1909 she married a law student named Oskar Horney whom she had three daughters with. (Eckardt, 2005) In 1926, Karen left her husband and later in 1930, she and her daughters moved to the United States, it was here that she became close friends with individuals who were seen as prominent intellectuals, and this is when...

Words: 1601 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Psychology of Women

...Health Psychology & the psychology of Gender - Gender makes a difference in the kinds of illness that people experience - Gender makes a difference in the way a disease is diagnosed and treated - Illness is an important part of many women’s experience The health care and health status of women - Biases against women - Women have often been neglected in medicine and in medical research - Gender stereotypes are common in medicine - Medical care provided to women is often irresponsible or inadequate - Physician-patient communication patterns often make women feel relatively powerless Intersectionality and women’s health - Ethnicity - Social Class - Country The Health Care and Health Status of Women - Gender Comparisons in Life Expectancy - Mortality - Gender gap in life expectancy - Why do women live longer? - biological factors - social factors - health care - Gender Comparisons in Overall Health - Morbidity - Longevity - Rape & Abuse - Economic factors - How social class influences US women’s health - Morbidity & Mortality - Quality of Health Care - Health Insurance - Environmental Factors - Poverty - Psychological Factors - Health issues for women in developing countries - Women & girls less likely to receive medical care - Inadequate nutrition and health care (dying during pregnancy of childbirth) - Cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and other specific health problems - Cardiovascular disease ...

Words: 729 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Women in Psychology

...Attention, learning, and memory Attention and memory are human thought process essential to pursuit of learning. Attention is the act of selectively focusing on a certain stimuli to create imprints or memories in mind. Memory provides recollection of the stimuli previously learned. And, learning is a lifelong pursuit facilitated by attention and memory. Human brain with its complexity is wired differently in each individual. Therefore, each individual’s attention and memory is interlinked with that individual’s learning style. One of the ways individuals learn in the modern era is online learning. Online learning offers the opportunity to pursue an education and convenience of learning from the comfort of one’s home. In other words, online learning occurs in an asynchronous environment. Students who are enrolled in online institutions must create an environment for themselves, because despite the convenience online learning does not necessarily facilitate a traditional classroom learning environment. For example, in a traditional classroom, students are sitting in neat spaces with their attention pierced on the professors’ lectures and taking notes. The occurrence of any distractions is very limited. Student can make use of their potential learning style to retain the information. Whereas, online students may get disrupted by presence of divided attention, dichotic listening or cocktail party phenomenon, and learning still occurs, but learning styles may get adjusted. Online...

Words: 1983 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Prominent Women in Psychology

...earliest psychologists emerge worked to keep women uneducated and at home, operating under the belief that women were inferior to men. When women challenged the Zeitgeist and chose careers as psychologists, society responded by pushing them into low-end careers, usually doing jobs that were similar to the domestic activities accepted as the women’s sphere, and often jobs that resisted any notoriety. Despite these social forces, however, women did pursue their careers as psychologists and they often succeeded, making significant contributions to the field. In studying the history of psychology, one might wonder, where the women are. Have they been left out of psychology’s history because they did not contribute remarkable and noteworthy work; or was it that women did not achieve adequate prominence so as to rank with men? Whatever the circumstances may be, the scarcity of women in psychology’s textbooks does not accurately represent women’s contributions to the field. The exclusion of women and their work has been reduced to the belief that women have not contributed significantly to psychology; therefore, directed society to disregard their definite participation, thus reinforcing the initial belief that women have played no eminent role in psychology. Women have in fact been present and active in psychology since its beginnings, but for a variety of reasons women and their work have been largely invisible to psychology as a whole. Women have faced many trials and overcome numerous...

Words: 1746 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Women in Psychology Paper

...Women in Psychology Paper PSY/310- History and Systems of Psychology September 16, 2012 Laura Rolen Like women, members of minority groups have been on the outside looking in for most of psychology’s history. Unlike the case for women, however, significant gains for blacks and most other minorities were not made in the years following World War II, and minorities continue to be underrepresented in psychology (Goodwin & Wiley & Sons inc., Chapter 15, 2008). In this paper I will be discussing Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930), Calkins was an American philosopher and she was the first of her generation of women to enter into psychology. Calkins was born on March 30, 1963 in Hartford, Connecticut she was the eldest of five children who were born to Charlotte Whiton Calkins (mother) and Wolcott Calkins (father). Calkins father was a Presbyterian minister her and her siblings lived and grew up in Buffalo New York, and at the age of 17-years-old her and her family moved to Newton, Massachusetts. Calkins started taking college classes at Smith College in 1882 where she was a...

Words: 1465 - Pages: 6