Calkins, Mary Whiton1863╨1930philosopher, psychologist and educatorBorn in Hartford, Connecticut, on March 30, 1863, Mary Calkins grew up mainly in Buffalo, New York, and moved with her family to Newton, Massachusetts, in 1880. She graduated from Smith College in 1885, and after a European journey with her family, during which she briefly attended Leipzig University, she joined the faculty of Wellesley College as a tutor in Greek in 1887. She advanced to instructor in 1889. In 1890 she began advanced studies in psychology and philosophy at Clark University and then at Harvard, where she studied under William James, Josiah Royce, and Hugo Mƒnsterberg. She completed all the requirements for the Ph.D. and was recommended by the department for the degree in 1896, but Harvard declined to award it to a woman. From 1890 to 1894 she was an instructor in psychology at Wellesley, and she subsequently advanced to associate professor of psychology in 1894 and of psychology and philosophy in 1896, and to professor of philosophy and psychology in 1898. In 1891 she established at Wellesley one of the earliest laboratories for experimental psychology in the country and the first in a women╒s college. Her own work in the field dealt primarily with such topics as space and time consciousness, emotion, association, color theory, and dreams. Her theory of ╥self-psychology╙ held, in contrast to the behaviorist view then in the ascendant, that the conscious self is the central fact of psychology. In the field of philosophy she acknowledged Royce╒s idealism as the chief influence leading to her own system of ╥personalistic absolutism.╙ Calkins╒ writings included more than a hundred papers in professional journals of psychology and philosophy, An Introduction to Psychology, 1901, The Persistent Problems of Philosophy, which went through five editions, 1907, A First Book of Psychology, 1909 and three subsequent editions, and The Good Man and the Good, 1918. In 1905 she became the first woman to be elected president of the American Psychological Association, and in 1918 she was accorded a similar honor by the American Philosophical Association. She was the first American woman to attain distinction in either field. Outside of academic life she interested herself in the Consumers╒ League, the American Civil Liberties Union, pacifism, socialism, and the cause of Sacco and Vanzetti. She retired from active teaching at Wellesley with the title of research professor, and she died in Newton, Massachusetts, on February 26, 1930. Nstyl ` ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ G !I 9 5¬ : !I y 5¬ z !I τ !I !I !I 1 !I [ !I u !I ƒ !I ╕ !I link `
