3. When you read many
introductions to
psychology history, one
of the first things you
may notice is the fact
that there are relatively
few women mentioned.
The contributions of
many of psychology's
most eminent female
thinkers have long been
ignored, but that is
starting to change as
more history texts begin
to recognize female
psychologists!!!
4. Anna Freud
Daughter of Sigmund Freud
She was influenced by her father's
psychoanalytic theories, but her own
contributions to ego psychology and child
psychoanalysis made her an important
theorist in her own right.
She is perhaps best-known as the founder
of child psychoanalysis
5. Mamie Phipps Clark
American social psychologist that focused on the
development of self-consciousness of pre-schooled black
children, along with her husband Kenneth Clark.
Her master's thesis, known as " The Development of
Consciousness of Self in Negro Pre-School Children,”
included doll experiments regarding race and segregation.
Her experimental findings were highly influential to the
Brown vs. Board of Education court case and brought light
to racial segregation in schools.
6. Mary Ainsworth
Developmental psychologist
Best-known for her "Strange Situation"
assessment of early childhood attachment
She made many important contributions to
attachment theory and her work has played
an important role in our understanding of
child development
7. Sandra Bem
A contemporary psychologist known for her
gender schema theory.
She developed the Bem Sex Role inventory,
which measures how well people fit into
traditional gender roles and characterizes
personality as masculine, feminine,
androgynous or undifferentiated.
8. Mary Whiton Calkins
The first woman president of the
American Psychological Association
She studied at Harvard with famous teachers
including William James and Hugo
Munsterberg.
Despite completing all of the requirements
for a doctorate degree in psychology,
Harvard refused to grant her degree simply
because she was a woman.
9. Leta Hollingworth
Known for her important work with
exceptional children
Early pioneer in the psychology
of women
She challenged the view at the time that
women were less gifted and talented than
men by conducting a large scale study of
more than 2,000 male and female infants.
10. Karen Horney
A prominent psychoanalyst known for her
important contributions to psychology through
her work with neurosis, feminine psychology
and self psychology.
Famous for challenging many of Sigmund
Freud's theories about women.
For example, Horney countered Freud's
assertion that women experience "penis
envy" by suggesting that men feel "womb
envy" because they are unable to bear
children.
11. Melanie Klein
Austrian psychoanalyst best known for creating the
therapeutic technique known as play therapy.
She was one of the first people to use traditional
psychoanalysis with children and the therapeutic
techniques she used continue to have an important
influence on contemporary child psychology.
Today, Kleinian psychoanalysis is considered to be
one of the major schools of thought within the field
of psychoanalysis.
12. Brenda Milner
British neuropsychologist is regarded as the
“Founder of neuropsychology.”
At present, Milner’s work is partly focused
on how the left and right hemispheres of
the brain interact as well as the study of
neural pathways involved in the learning of
language.
13. Susan Blackmore
Started out as a parapsychologist and
believer in the paranormal.
However, approximately 30 years later,
Blackmore would become an outspoken
skeptic and contributor to memetics –
the science that studies how memes
(ideas as units of cultural meaning) are
spread much like viruses.
In 1999 Blackmore published a popular book,
The Meme Machine, with a foreword by Richard
Dawkins. She is a consulting editor for the
Skeptical Inquirer and a Distinguished Supporter
of the British Humanist Association.
