The Science of Psychology 7a guest only. Calkins eventually established a psychological laboratory at Wellesley College.
Her work was some of the earliest research in the area of human memory and the psychol-
ogy of the self. In 1905, she became the first female president of the American Psychological
Association (Furumoto, 1979, 1991; Zedler, 1995). Unlike Washburn, Calkins never earned the
elusive Ph.D. degree despite a successful career as a professor and researcher (Guthrie, 2004).
Wo m e n w e re n o t t h e o n l y m i n o r i t y t o m a k e c o n t r i b u t i o n s i n t h e e a r l y d a y s o f p s y-
chology. In 1920, for example, Francis Cecil Sumner became the first African American
to earn a Ph.D. in psychology at Clark University. He eventually became the chair of the
psychology department at Howard University and is assumed by many to be the father
of African American psychology (Guthrie, 2004). Kenneth and Mamie Clark worked
to show the negative effects of school segregation on African American children (Lal,
2002). In the 1940s, Hispanic psychologist George (Jorge) Sanchez conducted research in
the area of intelligence testing, focusing on the cultural biases in such tests (Tevis, 1994).
Other names of noted minorities include Dr. Charles Henry Thompson, the first African
American to receive a doctorate in educational psychology in 1925, Dr. Albert Sidney
Beckham, senior assistant psychologist at the National Committee for Mental Hygiene at
the Illinois Institute for Juvenile Research in the early 1930s; Dr. Robert Prentiss Daniel,
who became president of Shaw University in North Carolina and finally the president
of Virginia State College; Dr. Inez Beverly Prosser (1897–1934), who was the first African
American woman to earn a Ph.D. in educational psychology; Dr. Howard Hale Long,
who became dean of administration at Wilberforce State College in Ohio; and Dr. Ruth
Howard, who was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in psychology (not
educational psychology) in 1934 from the University of Minnesota (Guthrie, 2004).
Since those early days, psychology has seen an increase in the contributions of all
minorities, although the percentages are still small when compared to the population at
large. The American Psychological Association’s Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs features
notable psychologists as part of their Ethnicity and Health in America Series. Their Web site
provides brief biographies of ethnic minority psychologists and work or research high-
lights particularly related to chronic health conditions for several ethnic groups: African
American, Asian American, Hispanic Latino, and Native American. For more informa-
tion, visit http://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/ethnicity-health/psychologists/.
Is functionalism still an important point of view in psychology?In the new field of psychology, functionalism offered an alternative viewpoint to the
structuralists. But like so many of psychology’s early ideas, it is no longer a major perspec-
tive. Instead, one can find elements of functionalism in the modern fields of educational
psychology (studying the application of psychological concepts to education) and industrial/
organizational psychology (studying the application of psychological concepts to businesses,
organizations, and industry), as well as other areas in psychology. to Learning
Objective B.6. Functionalism also played a part in the development of one of the more
modern perspectives, evolutionary psychology, discussed later in this chapter.
THREE INFLUENTIAL APPROACHES: GESTALT,
PSYCHOANALYSIS, AND BEHAVIORISM
1.2 Summarize the basic ideas and the important people behind the early
approaches known as Gestalt, psychoanalysis, and behaviorism.
While the structuralists and functionalists argued with each other and among them-
selves, other psychologists were looking at psychology in several other ways.
GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY: THE WHOLE IS GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS Max
Wertheimer (VERT-hi-mer), like James, objected to the structuralist point of view,
but for different reasons. Wertheimer believed that psychological events such as