How Did Mary Calkins Contribute To Psychology

Mary Calkins made numerous contributions to the field of psychology and laid a solid foundation that later psychologists relied on as the field grew. Mary was a pioneer in the Psychology field & the first American Psychological Association woman president. During the late 1800s &the early 1900s, she concentrated her efforts and willpower to become an inspirational figure to others and to help develop a new science in the field of psychology. Despite the challenges faced by women during her times, she relentlessly went on to setting her goals, achieving them and fighting for the voiceless women’s rights ("Mary Whiton Calkins," n.d.).
Biography of Mary Calkins
Mary Calkins was born at Connecticut in Hartford on the 30 March 1863. Her father was a Prysbetyrian church minister in Buffalo, but he joined Congregational church in Newton in 1880 where the family settled permanently. Mary was the first born in her family, and she had four siblings whom she had a strong relationship with (Difebo, 2003).
Mary completed her high school in Massachusetts and enrolled for undergraduate work at Smith College. She took off a year break from Smith College following the death of her sister, Maud.
However, Harvard officials still maintained their position not to award her the degree. Mary taught at Wellesley College for the much of her years and was a key player of the psychological advancement at Wellesley. Other than helping set up the first psychology laboratory there, she engaged her students actively and allowed many of them to do experimental work. In addition, Mary challenged the variability hypothesis put forward by Joseph Jastrow that that was presenting women as inferior. She saw no difference between men and women intellect, and she attributed the trivial difference to environmental factors (Difebo,