Psychology
PSYCHOLOGY
PSYCHOLOGY , the science of the mind or of mental phenomena and activities.
Psychological Concepts in the Bible
"Psychology has a long past, but only a short history" (H. Ebbinghaus, Abriss der Psychologie, 1908). Nowhere is this aphorism better exemplified than in the many centuries during which Jewish physicians and thinkers dealt with the problems of behavior and behavior disorders. Many current notions on classification and therapy were foreshadowed in biblical and talmudic literature, and Jewish philosophers wrestled with the same psychological concepts that still occupy attention today.
The Jewish art of healing always emphasized mental as well as physical health. Behavior disorders were well known to the early Hebrews, who were noteworthy for their observance of the laws of preventive medicine and hygiene. From the beginning Jewish monotheism excluded all kinds of magic practices. The Bible opposed occult healing as "Amorite customs" and prescribed as therapy for all mental and physical ills prayer to "God your healer" (Ex. 15:26) and the use of medicine (Ex. 21:19; i Kings 17:21; ii Kings 4:32–35; Ezek. 30:21).
Cases of mental disorder described in the Bible include King Saul's paranoia, depression, and epileptic seizures, treated by music therapy, and Nebuchadnezzar's lycanthropy. Various types of insanity are cited in the Pentateuch, such as phobia and panic (Lev. 26:17).
Post-Biblical and Talmudic Period
The talmudic description of shoteh ("the mentally insane") approaches the symptomatology of several psychoses (Ḥag. 2b; Sanh. 65b; Nid. 17a). The rabbis saw in the act of transgression a ru'aḥ shetut ("a mental deviation," Sot. 3a). Other psychological conditions mentioned are: epilepsy (Yev. 64b); hysteria (Hag. 3a); phobias (Git. 70a); hereditary traits (Bek. 8a; Yev. 64b) versus environment (Suk. 56b), melancholia (Shab. 2:5; see Maim.), defense mechanisms such as repression, sublimation, and projection (Meg. 25b; Kid. 70a), and the concept of catharsis cited in both the Bible (Prov. 12:25) and the Talmud (Sanh. 100b). Talmudic and midrashic literature also discussed ideas related to individual and social behavior, attitudes and values, systems of learning, discipline, and punishment. The need for "group belongingness" in the spirit of Hillel (Avot 2:4) was always stressed, and social acceptance was considered an indicator of divine approval (Avot 3:10). In the realm of education, the Talmud approached the training of children in the light of an awareness of differing learning abilities and the relation of learning to stages of development (Ber. 28a; Kid. 30a; Yoma 27a; Avot 5:12). The Talmud understood and stressed such principles as the need for psychological understanding of the mentally sick, individual differences in personality assessment (Sanh. 38a; arn1 4, 17), and the role of habit formation (Yoma 27a).
*Dreams were regarded as being of divine provenance. In antiquity Jews were famous as "dream interpreters," from Joseph to Daniel, and later the Essenes. The Talmud considers the dream "a sixtieth part of prophecy," that also contained irrelevant material, which "if not interpreted is like a letter which was not opened" (Ber. 55a). Halakhic literature deals with dreams related to oaths and promises, and with anxiety over a "bad dream," for which one is permitted to fast a ta'anit ḥalom even on the Sabbath (Shab. 11a). Hebrew "dream books" similar to those of the old Egyptians and Greeks were written by R. Hai.
The nature and function of the *soul, reason, and intellect were treated by Jewish philosophers (under Greek influence) and in the Kabbalah. Judaism believes that the soul and the body comprise the total personality in the divine image and do not represent an essential duality. Although the biblical terms ru'aḥ, nefesh, and neshamah are used synonymously, the rabbis identified the neshamah as the human psyche – the higher spiritual substance. In recognizing the conflict between the yeẓer ha-ra (the orgiastic drive to sin) and the yeẓer ha-tov (the positive inclination to control it), Judaism believes in the liber arbitrum (the principle of free choice), whereby man can master the id forces of the destructive yeẓer ha-ra (Suk. 52a) for the sake of the emergence of a healthy ego. *Maimonides attributed to the divine soul five different faculties: the nutritive, the sensitive, the imaginative, the emotional, and the rational (Shemonah Perakim, 1), the last being the distinctive, discriminating trait of man enabling him to apprehend and create ideas (Guide 1:70).
Medieval Period
Medieval Jewish philosophers who wrote on psychology included the eclectic Isaac b. Solomon Israeli who wrote Sefer ha-Yesodot ("The Book of Elements"), and discussed the interaction of mind and body and identified epilepsy and melancholia with insanity; Baḥya b. Joseph ibn Paquda; Solomon ibn Gabirol; Joseph ibn Ẓaddik; Judah Halevi; Abraham ibn Daud; and the rationalist Maimonides.
The Jewish share in the spread and development of medieval culture and the sciences is well known. Jewish works in medicine and science became the ultimate source of European medicine in the schools of Salerno and Montpellier. *Asaph's earliest medical work in Hebrew contains the first medical notice of the hereditary character of mental diseases and of psychosomatics. A description of mania was given by the earliest Italian physician Shabbetai Donnolo who was born in 913 c.e. Although ideas about psychological illness were historically attributed to Ḥibat Allah ibn Jumay (c. 1180), who was the Jewish physician to Saladin, Jewish genius in this field really begins with that remarkable physician of mind and body, Moses Maimonides, the most modern in approach of all medieval physicians.
Maimonides advocated research through experiment. He emphasized the high regard a physician should have for the human mind, and stressed the psychosomatic approach in therapy (Regimen Sanitatis, 3:13). He also differentiated between constitutional and environmental sources of behavior, urging the mentally sick to avail themselves of a "physician of the mind" (Code, 1:2). He warned against excessive use of tranquilizers or any radical changes in behavior (Shemonah Perakim, 1). Quite modern from the psychotherapeutical point of view, Maimonides insisted on complete psychological harmony between couples during sexual union for the benefit of the offspring, and viewed "physical health as a prerequisite to mental health and excellence" (Code, 1:4). In his treatise on the manic-depressive state Maimonides proposed "a strict hygiene of the soul" based on self-discipline and mental calm (Shemonah Perakim, 3).
The 13th-century rabbi Gershon b. Solomon of Arles identified the brain as the center of motility and not the heart. He is said to have experimented by removing the heart of a monkey and to have made similar tests on birds. In the same century Shem Tov b. Joseph *Falaquera wrote Battei Hanhagat Guf ha-Bari ve-ha-Nefesh and Sefer ha-Nefesh dealing with the psychic forces. Philosophical and physiological psychology is treated by *Hillel b. Samuel of Verona in Tagmulei ha-Nefesh ("Rewards of the Soul"). Moses Narbonni (11th century) and Nathan b. Joel Falaquera wrote on mental hygiene. Sleep was analyzed by the tenth-century Karaite Jacob al-*Kirkisani, and later by Jedaiah (ha-Penini) Bedersi as "a state when the sense of comprehension comes to a standstill" (Ketav ha-Da'at, "Treatise of the Intellect"). The medical works of *Amatus Lusitanus (16th century) and of Jacob *Ẓahalon (17th century) contain ample references to psychological issues.
Responsa Literature
The responsa literature also deals with mental diseases, in connection with matrimonial suits. Among the topics discussed were: melancholia, hysteria, "lunacy," manic-depressive states, megalomania, and character disorders. Isaac Lampronti of Ferrara permitted the desecration of the Sabbath "to prevent a state of emotional anxiety" (Resp. Naḥalat Shivah, 83). Music therapy, already used by King Saul and later treated separately by both Saadiah Gaon and Maimonides, is discussed by Ḥ.J.D. *Azulai in the Responsum Hayyim Sha'al (53), while hypnotism was noted by R. Jacob Ettlinger (d. 1871) in Binyan Ẓiyyon (67). Prison psychology was first introduced by the 18th-century Marrano Ribeira Sanchez. Jewish religious law requires strict consideration and good care for the mentally deficient (Sh. Ar., yd 240:10; Sh. Ar., eh 119:6). Even before Pinel's pioneering work in France, Jewish law required communal care for the insane, who "are not held responsible for their actions, yet, injuring them is legally prohibited" (Sh. Ar., Ḥm 924:8). Suggestive therapy "to pacify a patient's mind" is permitted by Maimonides and Caro on psychological grounds (Sh. Ar., yd 179:6).
Ḥasidism
The ḥasidic movement of the 18th century again introduced suggestive therapy. Mental disorders were often treated by early ẓaddikim. The Hasid's identification with his ego-ideal, the ẓaddik, a humane, divinely inspired messenger, and the strong belief in this spiritual leader, had phenomenal therapeutic effects. Much psychological insight is to be found in the writings of R. Israel Ba'al Shem Tov, R. Dov Baer, the Maggid of Mezhirech, R. Naḥman of Bratslav, R. Shneur Zalman of Lyady, and their disciples. Ḥasidic teaching with its kabbalistic overtones and its strong emotional appeal and emphasis on the humane and mystical factors is the most psychologically oriented of all the expressions of Judaism.
[Menachem M. Brayer]
Modern Period
Psychology as a science and a profession emerged in the second half of the 19th century. Before the birth of psychology as an independent discipline, there had been a long period during which the subject matter of psychology – mental activity, human nature, and the relationship of mind and body – had been the province of philosophy. Jewish thinkers, ranging from Philo, who attempted to reconcile Greek and Hebrew thought, to the Jewish philosophers in the Arab countries during the Middle Ages, and from *Spinoza and his laws of the mind to *Husserl and his phenomenology, played an important role in this history. But modern, scientific psychology could only come into being when the progress of physiology had provided the biological basis and physics, the methods to make psychology an experimental science.
psychological pioneers
The last two decades of the 19th century saw the founding of academic departments of psychology in most major universities in Europe and the United States. As it was difficult for Jews to obtain university appointments because of official and unofficial discrimination, there were relatively few Jewish pioneer psychologists involved in the founding of laboratories. G.F. *Heymans participated in the establishment of a laboratory at Louvain in Belgium in 1891 and went on to found the first Dutch laboratory at Groningen in 1892. Hugo *Muensterberg founded the laboratory at Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany, and was called to Harvard in 1892 to reactivate and take charge of the laboratory there. Joseph *Jastrow received the first doctorate in psychology granted in the United States, at Johns Hopkins University in 1886. Doubly handicapped by the absence of academic departments and the fact that he was Jewish, he circularized the major university departments with his proposals for a psychology curriculum. He was successful in gaining an appointment at the University of Wisconsin, thus founding the second psychological laboratory in the U.S. in 1888. In England, where resistance to the new experimental psychology was especially strong, C.S. *Myers was the first psychologist to be in charge of the laboratory at Cambridge.
the schools
After its initial phase, psychology passed through a period in which various schools advanced their claims to be its true representative. Although most psychologists remained eclectic, it was the schools which provided the chief directions for the development of psychological theory. Joseph Jastrow of Wisconsin was typical of this trend. Otto *Selz was a prominent member of the so-called "Wuerzburg" school which investigated the psychology of thinking processes. The next generation of psychologists rejected many of the theoretical concepts and experimental techniques of the older schools. The European movement, in opposition to the older schools, successfully challenged the earlier elementaristic concepts, substituting an emphasis on relationships and phenomenological methodology. It was influenced by the work of David *Katz and Edgar *Rubin on perception. The founders of the new school, known as Gestalt psychology, were Max *Wertheimer and his associates, including Kurt *Koffka. Other important early members of this school were Kurt *Goldstein and Kurt *Lewin. Gestalt psychology was particularly affected by the fact that most of its founders were Jewish. It was originally primarily a European school, but the forced emigration of most of its important contributors to the U.S. (including Koehler, who was not Jewish, but in sympathy with his Jewish colleagues) with the advent of the Nazis, introduced it into U.S. psychology. There it gained further support through the work of Hans Wallach in perception, Abraham Luchins in problem solving, and Solomon Asch in social psychology. In the 1920s and 1930s the acceptance of psychoanalytic and allied concepts in psychology grew rapidly and the ideas of Sigmund *Freud began to penetrate all facets of psychology, as well as literature, history, and the arts. The development of clinical psychology as a field of study and treatment of personality disorders can be traced primarily to the influence of psychoanalytic thinking.
Contemporary Period
Contemporary psychology has discarded the approach of the schools, with their attempt to bring all of psychology into one harmonious framework. It has substituted, in its systematic part, an emphasis on specific theories and models, and in its work, an emphasis on the investigation of specific problems and their applications. Many of the ideas of the schools have been incorporated into these modern approaches. Jewish psychologists have significantly contributed to the development of these theories. German and Austrian psychology was practically destroyed by the measures adopted by the Nazi regime, many of the displaced psychologists emigrating to the U.S. and making their contribution through teaching and research. Besides the Gestalt psychologists already mentioned, these included such important figures as Charlotte *Buhler, William *Stern, Heinz *Werner, Werner *Wolff, Erich *Fromm, Adhémar Gelb, and Else Frenkel-Brunswik (see Albert Wellek, "The impact of the German immigration on the development of American psychology," in Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 4 (1969), 207–29). A selective sample of prominent Jewish contributors to the development of present-day theoretical positions shows that practically all the psychological specialties are represented. Abram Amsel, Howard Kendler, Joseph Notterman, Leo Postman, William Schoenfeld, and Richard Solomon engaged in the study of learning with human and animal subjects. In the field of perception and sensory functions, leading names include Julian Hochberg, Hershel Leibowitz, Carl Pfaffman, and Irvin Rock. Comparative and physiological psychology are represented by Daniel Lehrman and David Krech, and by Murray Jarvik in the allied field of psychopharmacology. Jerry Hirsch made important contributions to psychogenetics, and Joshua *Fishman and Kurt Salzinger to the study of language. Melvin Marx worked in the field of learning, but is better known for his contribution to systematics. Abraham *Maslow figured prominently in the development of a humanistic psychology. The social field includes Leonard Berkowitz, Morton Deutsch, Leon Festinger, Otto Klineberg, and Daniel *Katz, with George Katona working in the allied area of the relation of economics and psychology.
Saul Rosenzweig, after work in personality and projective testing, became primarily interested in the history of psychology, as did Benjamin Wolman. In the development of projective testing Samuel Beck and Bruno Klopfer became known as experts on the Rorschach test. Personality theory has gained through the work of Milton Rokeach. David Wechsler originated the standard tests of intelligence named after him, while Boris Levinson used intelligence tests to discover the characteristic patterns of the mental development of Jewish children. Joseph Zubin attempted to devise objective tests of abnormal behavior. Jewish psychologists constitute a large segment of the U.S. clinical field. Their various contributions to theory and practice can be exemplified by the work of Perry London, Emanuel Schwartz, and Hans Strupp in clinical psychology, and Morton Seidenfeld in counseling.
The Jewish contribution to all branches of psychology has been very important from the start, and Jews make up a disproportionate number of the profession. The diversity of viewpoints and the distribution of psychologists in the past indicate that psychology has attracted Jewish professionals because it presented an opportunity for intellectual advancement that was denied in some of the better-established fields. Without the Jewish contribution it may safely be said that psychology would not have reached its present state of development and would be seriously handicapped in its future course.
[Helmut E. Adler]
Women in Psychology
Jewish women are well represented in the field of psychology; they have been particularly prominent in clinical psychology and the social psychology of intergroup relationships, especially as it involves socially marginalized groups. Female Jewish psychologists hoping to work in the academic world, particularly prior to the 1960s, often faced both antisemitism and discrimination based on their gender that made it difficult to find tenured professorships. A number of Jewish women psychologists in the second half of the 20th century came from working-class households imbued with socialist political convictions; many of these women were advocates of social justice and equity in their scholarly work and in their lives. A disproportionate number of Jewish women have been active scholars and practitioners in the field of the psychology of women. Seven of the 12 recipients of the Association for Women in Psychology's distinguished career awards through 2005 have been Jewish women. These include sociologist Jessie Bernard in 1977; Ethel Tobach in 1979; Jean Baker Miller in 1980; Florence *Denmark in 1986; Rhoda Unger in 1994; Bernice Lott in 1998; and Lenore Tiefer in 2004. A number of these women also received distinguished publication awards from that organization. In addition, 10 of the 23 recipients of the Carolyn Wood Sherif Award, the most important award offered by the Division of the Psychology of Women of the American Psychological Association, are Jewish women whose work is mentioned in this article. Rhoda Unger received the first such award in 1984 followed by Barbara Wallston in 1986 (posthumously), Martha Mednick in 1988, Florence Denmark in 1991, Phyllis Katz in 1994, Bernice Lott in 1996, Sandra Schwartz Tangri in 1999, Michelle Fine in 2000, Judith Worell in 2001, and Laura Brown in 2004. A Jewish male, Arnold Kahn, received this award in 2002.
early pioneers
The first major Jewish women psychologists were trained in Europe in the first few decades of the 20th century; many fled to the United States to escape the Nazis in the mid- or late 1930s. Like their male counterparts, many of these women, including Frieda *Fromm-Reichmann (1889–1957) and Else Frenkel-Brunswick (1908–1958), made their most important contributions in psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theory; others had an impact on the developing field of clinical psychology. These female refugees from Nazism helped to change the focus of American social psychology by giving it a more "outsider" perspective. These women, who were also early activists for various social causes, included the following:
Tamara Dembo (1902–1993) ultimately became a full member of the faculty at Clark University. Her major contributions were in the field of rehabilitation psychology, in which she advocated adapting environments to people rather than the other way around.
Erika Fromm (1910–2003) emigrated to the U.S. with her husband in 1938. Although confronted with gender discrimination that hampered her academic career, Fromm had an important impact on psychoanalysis through her work on dream interpretation and on hypnosis as a key to the unconscious.
Eugenia Hanfmann (1905–1983) studied conceptual thinking in schizophrenics and the role of projective tests in the assessment of personality. After a number of impermanent faculty positions, Hanfmann was invited to begin a counseling service for students at the newly formed Brandeis University in 1952.
Marie Jahoda (1907–2001) spent the war years in England but had an illustrious career in the U.S. beginning in 1945.
Margaret Mahler (1897–1985), a native of Hungary, worked in object relations theory.
Four U.S.-born Jewish women also made significant contributions to the field of psychology in the period directly after World War ii:
Thelma Alper (1908– ) was the 11th woman (and the first Jewish woman) to receive a psychology Ph.D. from Harvard University. After several years as a non-tenure track lecturer at Harvard, Alper accepted a tenured position at Wellesley in 1952. Her research combined elements of clinical and social psychology. She did a great deal of applied work with children and adolescents.
Mary Henle (1913– ), who was born in Cleveland, was committed to experimental and theoretical issues involving Gestalt psychology. A member of the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York City, her research shifted to experimentation on perception and cognition in later years.
Bernice Levin Neugarten (1916–2001) received her Ph.D. from the interdisciplinary program on child development at the University of Chicago; this was the first degree in human development conferred by any institution.
Jane Loevinger (1918– ) completed her graduate work at the University of California at Berkeley. Unable to obtain an academic position in St. Louis, where her husband was on the faculty of Washington University, Loevinger conducted a variety of research studies in the areas of measurement and psychoanalysis supported by outside grants. In 1971, she finally became a tenured professor at Washington University. Well known as a pioneer in the study of the structure of personality, she published work on the construction of projective tests as well as on the meaning and measurement of ego development.
social activists
This group of women (born in the 1920s or early 1930s) began their careers after World War ii when discrimination against Jews and women had become less overt. Social activism, as well as research on the personal and social costs of societal inequities, was the central focus of their professional lives. As the feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s made positions of leadership for women more acceptable, a number of Jewish women became presidents of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (spssi).
Cynthia Deutsch (1928– ), who succeeded June Tapp as president of the SPSSI, received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1953. Deutsch was primarily concerned with the psychological consequences of early intervention in the lives of children at risk.
Marcia Guttentag (1932–1977), was born in New York City and received her Ph.D. from the clinical psychology doctoral program at Adelphi University in 1960. Her scholarship focused on mental health evaluation and gender and racial inequity in education. In 1972 Guttentag became the Richard Clarke Cabot Visiting Professor of Social Ethics in the Department of Psychology and Social Relations at Harvard University as well as Director of the Social Development Research Center and the Center for Evaluation Research at its School of Education.
Lois Wladis Hoffman (1929– ), who was born in Elmira, New York, and received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1958, spent most of her professional career at the University of Michigan where she became a professor of psychology in 1975. Her earliest work was on child development, but she also investigated the effect of maternal employment on children. Her books include The Employed Mother in America (1963/1976) and Working Mothers: Evaluative Review of the Consequences for Wife, Husband, Child (1974). She later collaborated with Martha Mednick and Sandra Tangri on a book called Women and Achievement: Social and Motivational Analyses (1975).
Phyllis Katz (1938– ), born in New York City, received her Ph.D. in developmental and clinical psychology from Yale in 1961. She founded and edited the feminist journal Sex Roles and edited the Journal of Social Issues. She was a professor at the Graduate School of City University of New York and went on to maintain her own research institute in Boulder, Colorado. Her major work in psychology was on the socialization of gender roles in children and she also edited two books on eliminating racism (1976; 1988).
Clara Weiss Mayo (1931–1981) received her Ph.D. in psychology from Clark University in 1959. After she joined the faculty at Boston University, Mayo was involved in one of the first studies to examine the effect of busing on school integration. She was also interested in the way nonverbal communication patterns helped or hindered relationships between individuals from different social groups.
Martha Mednick (1929– ) was an influential pioneer in the study of women and gender.
June Tapp (1929–1992) was born in New York City but grew up in Los Angeles. After graduating from the University of Southern California, she completed her Ph.D. in social and political psychology at Syracuse University in 1963. A major researcher in psychology, law, and public policy, Tapp held a number of short-term positions before becoming a professor at the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota in 1972. Her co-authored books include Ambivalent America (1971) and Law, Justice, and the Individual in Society (1977); she was also an effective social activist.
Ethel Tobach (1921– ) is unique among this group, because of her field of comparative psychology as well as her European birth.
prominent later practitioners
Judith Alpert (1944– ), who received her Ph.D. in school psychology from Teacher's College of Columbia University in 1973, did her research in school psychology and women and psychoanalysis. She was associated with the School Psychology Program in the School of Education at New York University for virtually all of her career.
Sandra Lipshitz Bem (1944– ), a Pittsburgh native, moved with her husband Darryl Bem to University of Michigan, where she received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology in 1968. Bem did early collaborative work with her husband on the internalization of gender stereotypes as a source of gender inequality; she also originated the concept of "androgyny" – a measure of personality which views "masculine" and "feminine" traits as independent of each other. Her 1993 The Lenses of Gender examined the way gender is constructed by societal constraints.
Annette Brodsky (1938– ) followed Florence Denmark and Martha Mednick as the fifth president of the apa's division on women (1977–1978). Born in Chicago, Brodsky received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Florida in 1970. She initiated the first women's studies course at the University of Alabama and co-edited the first book on psychotherapy and women and also conducted important research on sexual contact between therapists and clients. She later lived in Los Angeles where she was director of clinical training for a large hospital and an expert witness on sexual abuse in psychotherapy.
Laura Brown (1952– ), a Cleveland native, received her Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University in 1977. A clinical professor of psychology at the University of Washington and a private practitioner, Brown served as president of the apa Division on the Psychology of Women following her term as president of the apa's Division on Gay and Lesbian Psychology. Brown is the author of Subversive Dialogues (1994) and other books on diversity issues in feminist therapy and feminist perspectives on personality and psychopathology.
Nancy Datan (1941–1987) emigrated to Israel in 1963, two years after receiving her master's degree from the human development program at the University of Chicago where she worked with Bernice Neugarten. She completed her Ph.D. from the same program while in Israel and returned to the U.S. in 1973. She taught at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay with her second husband for the few years before her death. Datan and several colleagues conducted a pioneering study of aging among women from five subcultures in Israel, which ranged from traditional to modern in their conceptions of women's roles (Datan et al., 1981). She later reconsidered the research questions they had asked and their implications for gender roles within a religious and cultural framework (Datan, 1986). Datan also edited an important series of books on adult development and aging.
Florence Denmark (1932– ) was the first Jewish woman to be elected president of the American Psychological Association (1980).
Michelle Fine (1953– ), who grew up in suburban New Jersey, received her Ph.D. in 1980 from Teacher's College of Columbia University. A professor of psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Fine's scholarship has focused on women and disability; black and Latina high school dropouts; and problematizing whiteness.
Frances Degen Horowitz (1932– ), New York City-born, received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1959. Much of her professional career was spent at the University of Kansas where she rose from professor of psychology to dean of the Graduate School. She became president of the Graduate School of the City University of New York in 1991. Horowitz's research focused on early childhood development and children in poverty. President of the apa Division of Developmental Psychology in 1977–78, and president of the Society for Research on Child Development in 1996–97, she received the Weizmann Institute's Women in Science award in 1994.
Hannah Lerman (1936– ), the twelfth president of the apa Division of the Psychology of Women (1984–85), was born in New York City and received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Michigan State University in 1963. A therapist in private practice in the Los Angeles area, she co-founded the Feminist Therapy Institute. Lerman wrote a well-received book critiquing Freudian theory (1986) as well as a critique of the psychodiagnosis of women in the late 20th century (1997). She also co-edited an important book on feminist ethics in psychotherapy (1990).
Bernice Lott (1930– ), a president of the apa Division on the Psychology of Women (1990–91), taught at the University of Rhode Island. Her career shows discontinuities similar to those of other women who are/were married to prominent men in the field. Following her second marriage to Albert Lott, she began to publish research regularly both in collaboration with him and by herself. Her work focused on prejudice and discrimination against women and on the social learning of gender.
Judith Seitz Rodin (1944– ) was born in New York City and received her Ph.D. in social psychology from Columbia University in 1970. She did important work on obesity, aging, and social control while a professor of psychology at Yale where she became dean of the Graduate School before becoming president of the University of Pennsylvania. She made important contributions to research and policy issues involving women's health.
Marilyn Safir (1938– ) moved to Israel shortly after receiving her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Syracuse University. Born and raised in New York City, Safir was an activist on racial issues. Disenchanted with the treatment of women in the civil rights movement, she went to Israel because she believed that there would be more sexual equality there than in the U.S. In Israel, Safir was an early advocate of feminism and fostered dialogue between U.S. and Israeli scholars. Her research challenged myths of sexual equality in Israel.
Sylvia Scribner (1923–1991) worked as a union organizer and an anti-establishment activist for many years. After receiving her Ph.D. in 1970 under the direction of Mary Henle, Scribner became professor of developmental psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York at the age of 59. Her extensive scholarly contributions were primarily in the area of cross-cultural psychology, cognitive science, and the history of science.
Sandra Schwartz Tangri (1937–2003) received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan's interdisciplinary social psychology program in 1967. Tangri held faculty appointments at Douglass College of Rutgers University and Richmond College of the City University of New York. Between academic jobs, she was director of the Office of Research for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for four years and senior research associate at the Urban Institute for three more years. She later became professor of psychology at Howard University. Tangri conducted longitudinal research on women's careers and also investigated sexual harassment in the federal work force and ethical issues in population programs.
Rhoda Kesler Unger (1939– ), who received her Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Harvard University in 1966, was the eighth president of the apa Division of the Psychology of Women (1980–81). Co-author of an early text on the psychology of women with Florence Denmark (1975), she became professor of psychology and director of the All-College Honors Program at Montclair State University in New Jersey in 1972. Her primary work was on the relationship between ideological values, theory, and methodology within psychology.
Lenore Walker (1942– ), the 17th president of the apa Division of the Psychology of Women (1989–90), received her Ed.D. from Rutgers University and is best known for her groundbreaking work on battered women. She received a Distinguished Award for Contributions to the Public Interest from the American Psychological Association for her lobbying efforts in this area.
Barbara Strudler Wallston (1943–1987) received her Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Wisconsin in 1972. She spent her entire career as an academic researcher at George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, where she served as chair of the Department of Psychology and Human Development and as coordinator of its graduate program in psychology. She was a leader in the Association for Women in Psychology and chair of apa's Committee on Women in Psychology in 1980; in 1987 she received the Carolyn Wood Sherif Lectureship Award for her achievements in and commitment to feminist scholarship, teaching, and mentoring and to professional leadership in feminist psychology (O'Leary, 1988). Wallston developed a health locus of control scale with her then husband, Kenneth Wallston, which is used internationally to measure people's beliefs about what controls their health status and she also worked in the area of dual-career couples, stereotyping (Wallston and O'Leary, 1981), and feminist methodology in psychology.
Naomi Weisstein (1940– ), born in New York City, received her Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Harvard University. Academic gender discrimination initially limited her employment to an adjunct lectureship at the University of Chicago. She finally joined the faculty at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1973 where her research life was cut short by chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome. Weisstein contributed to the understanding of the neuropsychology of visual perception as well as to feminist scholarship.
Judith Worell (1928– ) was born in New York City and received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Ohio State in 1954. She served as chair of the Department of Counseling Psychology at the University of Kentucky and edited Psychology of Women Quarterly. Worell's research interests focus on the development of a feminist model for counseling psychology; she also conducted extensive research on women's roles throughout their lifespan and on their satisfaction with their choices.
[Rhoda K. Unger (2nd ed.)]
bibliography:
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