Mary Whiton Calkins

Mary Whiton Calkins

What does it take to be number one? As we know everyone loves a winner. Most people if they were asked who the fastest man in the world was? They would correctly answer with the name Usain Bolt. Nobody remembers number two right? However, let us imagine Mr. Bolt being told that he could compete in track and field but he could not officially win any medal because he was Jamaican. Sounds far-fetched today and against our values and everything we stand for in the 21st century? Well in the 1800s, things were very different especially for women and Mary Calkins was no exception. Mary Calkins not only made countless contributions to the field of psychology, her perseverance changed many perceptions resulting in
For example there were only twelve colleges that had psychological laboratories in the entire United States and she created one. In her laboratory she had fifty four students dissect sheep brains and carry out studies on sensation, space perception, memory and reaction time. All of which are things that are used today by other scientists and different medical communities. For example, we are always hearing that drunk driving skews your space perception, sensation, memory and reaction time. One has to think this is not a coincidence that her work contributed to their findings. It was the first at a woman’s college and she did this with a mere $200. From 1891-1892 at the behest of G. Stanley Hall who has the editor of the American Journal of Psychology, her articles were normally studies and experiment by her and her studies that included everything from children’s emotions, moral consciousness, drawings, psychological anesthetics, and dreams. From her research in dreams she discovered there was a close relationship between her patient’s dreams and what happens in real life. Her work would not be appreciated during its early stages by most scholars as they were on board with Freudian thought process on dreams. Later this same community would dismiss Freud’s method and make Calkins research integral to dream researching. Through all of her research while pursuing her doctorate one of her most significant things
She had to overcome numerous obstacles that would have made any other person give up and pursue a different profession. She worked and went to school, dealt with sexism and static thinking, in terms of a womens’ place in society. I say to Mary Calkins you are a winner and we remember you. Not only for your contributions that you have to the respective field of psychology, but the barriers that you broke down so that other women were allowed to be more easily accepted and respected. From my research on Mary Calkins I learned that a group of Harvard alumni petitioned for her to be awarded her doctorate in 1930, but they were denied. I think that it would be fitting if this cause was taken up once again today. For everything Mary Calkins has meant to the field of psychology it is the least we could do to honor all of the blood, sweat, and tears that she put into her