Margaret floy washburn biography

American psychologist and scholar (1871–1939)

Margaret Floy Washburn (July 25, 1871 – October 29, 1939), was a leading American psychologist in the early 20th century, was best known for her experimental work in animal behavior and motor theory development. She was the first woman to be granted a PhD in psychology (1894); the second woman, after Mary Whiton Calkins, to serve as president of the American Psychological Association (1921); and the first woman elected to the Society of Experimental Psychologists. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Washburn as the 88th most cited psychologist of the 20th century, tied with John Garcia, James J. Gibson, David Rumelhart, Louis Leon Thurstone, and Robert S. Woodworth.

Biography

Born on July 25, 1871, in New York City, she was raised in Harlem by her father Francis, an Episcopal priest, and her mother, Elizabeth Floy, who came from a prosperous New York family. Her ancestors were of Dutch and English descent and were all in America before 1720. Washburn was an only child; she did not appear to have childhood companions her age and spent much of her time with adults or reading. She learned to read long before she started school; this caused her to advance quickly when she started school at age 7. In school, she learned French and German. When she was eleven years old, she started at public school for the first time. In 1886, she graduated from high school at the age of fifteen, and that fall, she entered Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, as a preparatory student. This preparatory status was due to her lack of Latin and French. During her undergraduate years at Vassar, Washburn developed a strong interest in philosophy through poetry and other literary works. She also became a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, and was first introduced to the field of psychology. After she graduated from Vassar in 1891, Wash

Margaret Floy Washburn was an advocate for equal educational opportunities for women and became the very first woman in the United States to be awarded a doctoral degree in psychology. Born into a wealthy New York City family, Washburn received her bachelor's degree from Vassar College in 1891, majoring in Chemistry and French. Through persistence, Washburn convinced Columbia University to allow her to audit classes taught by noted psychologist, James McKeen Cattell.

About a year later Cattell recommended that Washburn apply to Cornell University, one of very few institutions that would accept females as graduate students. At Cornell Washburn worked with an early icon in American psychology, E.B. Titchener. She became Titchener's first doctoral student and, in 1894, the first female in the United States to be awarded a Ph.D. in psychology.

Washburn subsequently taught at several colleges but spent the bulk of her career as a psychology professor at Vassar College. By all accounts Washburn loved teaching and mentoring undergraduates. She declined to marry, at least in part, because she would have been expected to give up her paid teaching position. Washburn was an expert on animal behavior as well as sensation and perception. She authored multiple editions of one of the earliest and most successful textbooks in comparative psychology, The Animal Mind. She also wrote a book on her motor theory, Movement and Mental Imagery. Washburn was a co-editor on very early volumes of the American Journal of Psychology, was ranked among the top 50 psychologists in the country in 1903, served as President of the American Psychological Association in 1921, and was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1931.

Margaret Floy Washburn (July 25, 1871 – October 29, 1939), was a leading Americanpsychologist in the early twentieth century, best known for her experimental work in animal behavior and motor theory development. As the first woman to be granted a Ph.D. in psychology, she pioneered the involvement of women in the discipline, and her work at Vassar College made it a leading institution in psychological research. Her views on the importance of scientific study of internal mental functions together with external behavior in order to understand human behavior were radical for her time.

Life

Born in New York City, Margaret Floy Washburn was raised in Harlem by her father, Francis, an Episcopal priest, and her mother, Elizabeth Floy, who came from a prosperous New York family. Margaret was an only child. She entered school at age 7 and at age 9 moved to Kingston, New York, when her father was placed in a parish there. She graduated from high school in June 1886, at age 15, and that fall she entered Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, as a preparatory student in chemistry and French.

At Vassar, Washburn became interested in experimental psychology and she determined to study under James McKeen Cattell in the newly established psychological laboratory at Columbia University. As Columbia did not yet admit women graduate students, she enrolled only as an "auditor." She did well and Cattell encouraged her to enter the newly organized Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University, which she did in 1892.

At Cornell, Washburn studied under Edward B. Titchener, his first and only graduate student at the time. She conducted an experimental study of the methods of equivalences in tactual perception and earned her master's degree in absentia from