Margaret Floy Washburn: biography of this experimental psychologist

Margaret Floy Washburn (1871-1939) was the first woman to be officially recognized with a Doctorate degree in Psychology from Cornell University, and she was also the second woman president of the APA (American Association of Psychology).

Her studies have been pioneers, although little known, in experimental psychology especially applied to the mental processes of animals and human beings. She likewise is one of the first representatives of the struggles for equal opportunities for women in higher education.

In this article you will find a biography of Margaret Floy Washburn, as well as some of her main contributions to psychology and some of the elements that generated barriers important for the participation and scientific development of women at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the century XX.

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Margaret Floy Washburn: Biography of a Pioneer of Psychology

Margaret Floy Washburn was born on July 25, 1871, in New York City. She grew up in a context where education was taught in spaces reserved for men, and spaces reserved for women were also opening up little by little.

Washburn she was trained in philosophy and science at Vassar College she and later she did graduate studies with James McKeen Cattell, who had started a psychology lab at Columbia University. Despite the fact that in this context women were not allowed to participate in the laboratories, Margaret Floy Washburn was admitted as a “listener”.

A year after working with Cattell, Washburn decided to study at Cornell University together with the British psychologist Edward B. Titchenerher, since she there she seemed to have more opportunities to obtain an official degree as a psychologist. This is how she became Titchener's first PhD student and she was the first woman to be officially recognized with a Doctorate in Psychology, in the year 1894.

Washburn developed in a privileged family context from which she was able to develop an important professional career and face the context that excluded women from academic activity, while demanding a life based on marriage and family.

He kept his professional career a priority and gained a lot of prestige both for his research and for his teaching activities. For example, he published a total of 69 experimental studies that were produced in his laboratory at Vassar College, where he also prioritized the participation of women. In 1903 he was included in the list of the 50 best psychologists in America.

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Society of Psychologists and the First Generation of Women

Edward B. Titchener had some disagreements with the psychology that the APA supported at the time, so she decided to found the first alternative society of experimental psychologists. Titchener had steadfastly refused to accept that women were part of his society, among other things because he considered it inappropriate for them to be present in the smoking room; a place that the APA had already opened for women scientists.

In this context, Washburn had distanced herself from Titchener and became critical of his views. reductionists of the mind, but she was already part of the first generation of prestigious women in psychology experimental. In fact, in the year 1921 she was named president of the American Psychological Associationher, becoming the second woman to hold that position (the first was Mary Whiton Calkins).

Once Titchner had died, the Society of Experimental Psychologists reorganized, and by two women were first admitted to the group: June Etta Downey and Margaret Floy Washburn. In 1931, Washburn even arranged for the annual psychologist meetings to be held at Vassar College, the women's college to which she was attached. In the same year she became the second woman elected as a member of the prestigious National Academic of Science.

Main works and books

The main contribution of Washburn's work to psychology was the study of consciousness and mental processes in animals and later in humans. She specifically explored the existence of conscious processes, such as attention and learning. In addition, she emphasized the importance of motor movements for the activation and development of psychological processes, especially for learning, attention and emotion.

From her studies with animals, Washburn argued that it is motor arousal that prepares for future actions. In other words, higher mental processes, such as reflection and awareness, decision-making, and learning, occur from physical movements that predispose or inhibit action in the presence of distal stimuli (those that activate the sensory system because they act as an announcement of the arrival of a proximal stimulus, which is the one that directly affects to the body).

Some of her main works are The Animal Mind (The Animal Mind), 1908, which has been recognized as one of the pioneering studies in animal cognition, as well as one of the investigations that allowed the field of experimental psychology to mature and standardize both definitions and vocabulary.

Another of her main works is Movement and Mental Imagery (Movement and Mental Imagery) of 1917, which was where she developed her theory of consciousness in an important way. It is in the latter that Washburn succeeded in integrating the experimental method of introspection with an emphasis on motor processes.

Bibliographic references:

• American Psychological Association (2018). Margaret Floy Washburn, PhD. 1921 APA President. Retrieved June 19, 2018. Available in http://www.apa.org/about/governance/president/bio-margaret-washburn.aspx
• García Dauder, S. (2005). Psychology and Feminism. Forgotten History of Pioneering Women in Psychology. Madrid: Narcea.
• Rodkey, E. (2010). Margaret Floy Washburn. Psychology’s Feminist Voices. Retrieved June 19, 2018. Available in http://www.feministvoices.com/margaret-floy-washburn/