Historical Issues in Psychology

__________ is best known for his influential studies on racism and its effects on child development, and for becoming the first African American to be elected president of the American Psychological Association.

A. Kenneth Clark

The psychologist best known for being the first female president of the American Psychological Association and for being denied a doctoral degree from Harvard because of her gender is __________.

A. Mary Whiton Calkins

Which of the following statements is not true about minorities in psychology today?

A. Minorities make up half of the population earning degrees in psychology.

All of the following were barriers to minority participation in early psychology except __________

A. school desegregation

In the 19th century, women were expected to conform to a certain role that entailed __________.

C. getting married and having children

The psychologist who was the first woman to earn a doctoral degree in psychology in the US and is renowned for writing a comparative psychology book in which she described the cognitive processes in both humans and animals is

B. Margaret Floy Washburn

The psychologist known for being the first woman of Mexican descent to receive a doctoral degree in psychology in the US and for helping establish the National Hispanic Psychological Association is __________.

D. Martha Bernal

Leta Stetter Hollingworth conducted pioneering work on __________.

D. adolescent development and gifted children

Despite valid research, in the late 1900s, women and minorities were thought to have a higher level of intelligence than white males.

False

Ethnocentrism helps researchers avoid cultural bias when interpreting research findings.

False

Ethnocentrism is the practice of viewing male behavior and cognitive processes as the norm for explaining all human behavior.

False

Explain the contributions Mary Whiton Calkins and Inez Beverly Prosser made to psychology.

Mary Whiton Calkins was a leading American psychologist who is best known for two things: being the first female president of the American Psychological Association and for being denied a doctoral degree at Harvard because of her gender. However, she made significant contributions to psychology that include establishing the first psychology laboratory at a women's college, inventing the paired associate technique to study memory, and developing a theory of self-psychology, which makes the self the primary focus of psychology. Inez Beverly Prosser was the first African American woman to receive a doctoral degree in psychology in the US. She studied the academic development of children in integrated and segregated schools. She also published many articles on teaching English.

Who conducted the doll experiment, and how did this experiment contribute to the civil rights movement in the United States?

The doll experiment was conducted by Kenneth and Mamie Clark. Their experiment suggested that, due to segregation, African American children preferred white dolls, attributed more positive characteristics to white dolls, and felt inferior. This experiment played an important role in the desegregation of American schools and was even cited in the landmark US Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, which was an important event in the civil rights movement.

Which of the following is not a way in which psychological research can be culturally biased?

The participants used in the research are representative of several cultural groups.

Explain two ways in which early psychological research was biased and give an example of this bias in psychology.

The predominance of white, middle-class males in early psychology caused some research to be biased. Some research was gender biased or androcentric, which means that research was viewed from a male perspective and used as the basis to study cognitive processes and behavior. One example of androcentrism is Kohlberg's theory of moral development, which he developed by only studying males. Some early psychological research was also racially biased, affecting the topics researched and the interpretation of research findings. For example, R. Meade Bache conducted research on the reaction times across three racial groups and interpreted that Caucasians have the slowest reaction times because they're less primitive and more intellectual and contemplative than other racial groups.

A bias is an inclination to hold or present a certain perspective.

True

J. Henry Alston was the first African American to publish his research findings on the perception of heat and cold in a major US psychology journal.

True

Kenneth and Mamie Clark's doll experiment was cited in the landmark US Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education.

True

Explain two reasons why women and minorities were excluded from psychology.

Women and minorities were excluded from early psychology for a variety of reasons. One reason that women were excluded was due to social expectations. Women were expected to conform to a female role that entailed learning domestic skills, getting married, and having children. Another reason why women and minorities were excluded is because of limited academic opportunities. Numerous schools did not allow the admittance of women or minorities into their graduate programs