Mary Whiton Calkins Essays - American Psychologists,

Mary Whiton Calkins INTRODUCTION Mary Whiton Calkins, is best known for two things: becoming the first woman president of The American Psychological Association and being denied her doctorate from Harvard. However, these two aspects only make up a small portion of what she accomplished in her life. Her entire life was dedicated to her work, especially the development of her Psychology of selves. She founded an early psychology laboratory and invented the paired-associate technique. She passionately dove into the new field of Psychology but also was highly active in the field of Philosophy. She was not deterred by being a woman and used her struggles to gain a voice to speak out against women's oppression. (5) EARLY LIFE Mary Whiton Calkins was born on March 30, 1863 in Buffalo, New York. Her father was Wolcott Calkins and a Presbyterian minister. She was from a close knit family, especially to her mother, and the eldest of five children. In 1880, when she was seventeen, she moved to Newton, Massachusetts where her family built a home that she lived in the rest of her life. Her father, knowing the education that women received, decided to design and supervise Mary's education. This enabled her to enter Smith College in 1882 with advanced standing as a sophomore. However, in 1893, an experience that permanently influenced her thinking and character, was the death of her sister, Maude. The following academic year she stayed home and took private lessons. She reentered Smith College in the fall of 1884 as a senior and graduated with a concentration in classics and philosophy (7). In 1886 her family went to Europe for sixteen months. This is where she broadened her knowledge of the classics. Upon returning to Massachusetts her father arranged an interview for Mary with the President of Wellesley College, a liberal arts college for women that was a few miles from their home. She was offered a position there as a tutor in Greek and began teaching in the fall of 1887. Mary remained in the Greek Department for three years. However, a professor in the Department of Philosophy noticed her talent of teaching. He discussed with Mary the position needed to teach the new field of Psychology, which was still a sub-discipline of Philosophy. Due to the scarcity of women in that area, it made it realistic to see her potential and offer her the position. EDUCATIONAL SETBACKS The only requirement that the professor had, was that Calkins study for one year in a Psychology program. However, she faced two problems meeting this condition. The first, being that there were few psychology departments in 1890. Secondly, getting admitted to these places that did offer the program was highly unlikely since she was a woman. Her first consideration was to study abroad. An instructor at Smith told her that her best chance was to try obtaining private instruction in psychology and philosophy at any of the German universities outside of Zurich (6). However, another instructor told her that would be a good idea if ladies had been allowed the same privileges as men (6). Calkins formally dismissed going to Germany when she received a letter from a woman student attending the University of Gottingen which stated, I wish I might encourage you; but past experience has proved to me the utter uselessness of trying to enlighten the authorities, at least, in our generation. Once Calkins started looking at the United States, she discovered that the University of Michigan, where she would be studying under John Dewey, and Yale, where she would be studying under G.T. Ladd, were promising. However, she received a letter from another woman student that dissuaded her. The letter stated, Personally, I should be immensely glad if you would come. We might be able to get some delightful work together...By the way Prof. Ladd thinks you ought to have some lady with you at the lectures. If there were only one or two other girls who would come to join us, we could get a tremendous amount...(4). She decided against both universities, most likely because they were further away from home that she would like and they did not have a psychological laboratory. However, one of the few universities that did have a

Cause and Effect Paper About Aliens Research Paper Example

Cause and Effect Paper About Aliens Research Paper Example Cause and Effect Paper About Aliens Paper Cause and Effect Paper About Aliens Paper Essay Topic: Cause and Effect Cause and Effect Paper Ashamed of Human Society Today With all the technical advances ( computers cell phones) and the medical evolution you would think that we would be proud of our society, but when asked to write an essay about if aliens came to visit our planet from a higher developed civilization would we be proud or ashamed of the state of human race today, taking a deeper look into our race I can only conclude that they would be disappointed. Would they want to breath in our polluted air, see the disrespect that humans often give one another based on a race or culture, agree with our disregard for other living things, agree with our decisions to get abortions because we can’t live up to our mistakes, or would they be aggravated with the lazy people who just live life on the government’s welfare. The first thing that I feel would disappoint these highly advanced creatures would be our neglect to the plant. Global warming is an ongoing issue. Although we know the cause for this epidemic we continue to drive our cars to and from work or school carrying on with our everyday lives. As the winters in some places seem to get warmer, people knowing the cause just ignore it. But, it’s not just the cars we drive and the pollution that we put in the air, it’s the neglectful student or classmate that see the garbage and yet, the garbage is still laying to the floor. In addition to the disrespect of the environment, when I think of what we humans are doing to our other fellow humans, I would have to say that I am ashamed. People tend to judge other people simply by their race or culture and not for the person that they really are, or the things that they have accomplished in their lives. Racism is a big part of everyday life and it’s just not right. It can be as little as calling someone a hurtful name because of their color or religious beliefs or as extreme as murder. If these aliens from another civilization came here to visit I would be embarrassed of the way people treat other people. Also, not only do humans show disrespect to other humans but what about everything else that gets destroyed, how many species of plants and animals that get killed, how many countless billions of life forms are destroyed that we didnt hear about, that we didnt care about, that no longer exist because of us. Everything on this planet deserves the right to life. But most people only care about themselves now a days, they don’t have any regard to the other living things around us. Not only does this attitude and behavior affect humans, but it also affects the other life forms on the planet as well. All living species are interconnected and play a role in the environment. If one species becomes endangered or extinct, it has a huge impact on the rest of the species as well. For example, even though humans view bees as pests and try very hard each year to make sure these insects do not invade their yards, bees are a very essential part of nature. Bees are necessary in pollinating flowers so that they are able to reproduce. Without bees, this process would be impeded. This is an example of how humans take their environment for granted. In attempting to make life better for ourselves, we often mistreat the little things that help our planet and harm other species. Furthermore not only do we as humans have disregard for other living things, but a lot of people don’t even have respect for babies that don’t even have the chance to be born or live. Just because these babies are not out of the womb yet does not make them any less human, they still have a heartbeat. I believe that if you are old enough to have sex and get pregnant in the first place, then you are old enough to face up to your actions and be a parent. That’s why we as humans invented things like condoms and birth control, its your own fault if you decide not to protect yourself if you are not ready to have children. These creatures from a place or planet that is way more developed would most likely pack their bags and leave if they saw the insolent way in which we as humans behave in today’s society. Lastly, I am mortified of all the lazy people that live off the government. There are many people that have multiple kids just to get more money, sit on their couches all day and do nothing all day. A lot of these people drive better cars, live better and have better housing than the people that go to work everyday to make an honest living. I think that these aliens would be disgusted with these people that are totally capable of working that would rather hang around and do nothing and rely on the government to support them and their multiple children. I don’t think its right to the people that are working hard and have to pay taxes that go to these government fundings for others to abuse these funds and not work even though they are capable. In conclusion, even with the inventions we have created or the medial advances and cures for diseases we have come up with there are still many reasons I would feel embarrassed or ashamed of our society and how we live today if these friendly aliens from a higher developed civilization decided to visit our planet. Not only because of the way we treat our environment but the way we treat other people and other living things. But I guess all you can do is take the good with the bad, you live and you learn.