"Marginalization is strangely ignored in the psychological literature: in preparation for writing this chapter we carried out a search of the psycINFO database for the period from 1876 until the present day, using both 'marginalization' and 'marginalisation'. We found 52 items that included the term in the title - of these, only 17 actually dealt with the experience of social marginalization by people in positions of oppression, exclusion, vulnerability or discrimination: the others dealt with things as diverse as a statistical technique or the marginalization of certain professional groups or practices. Curiously, there was no entry at all from before 1982.
Over 55,000 references are currently added to the database each year, so in the year 2000, for instance, there were two out of 55,000 or 0.0036 per cent of relevant references. Although there will be many more texts that deal with the question (but do not mention it in the title)., this still looks like a remarkable neglect by the established field of psychology." (Kagan & Burton, 2005)
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- Kagan, C. & Burton, M. H. (2005). Marginalization. In: Community Psychology (293-308), link
"Avoid using terms such as “seniors,” “elderly,” “the aged,” “aging dependents,” and similar “othering” terms because they connote a stereotype and suggest that members of the group are not part of society but rather a group apart (see Lundebjerg et al., 2017; Sweetland et al., 2017). Do not use these stigmatizing terms in your research even if your participants use them to refer to themselves (also see guidance regarding disability). Likewise, avoid negativistic and fatalistic attitudes toward aging, such as age as being an obstacle to overcome (Lindland et al., 2015). Do not use “senile”; it is an outdated term with no agreed-upon meaning. Use “dementia” instead of “senility”; specify the type of dementia when known (e.g., dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease). Be sure your language conveys that aging is a normal part of the human experience and is separate from disease and disorder."
According to earlier research, borderline personality disorder (BPD) is more common among women (female to male gender ratio of 3:1) (Sansone & Sansone, 2011). Generally speaking, literature on BPD focuses on women while research on its occurrence in men is rather scarce (Johnson et al., 2003). More recent research, however, suggests that there are no differences in prevalence based on gender but with regard to personality traits. Explanations range from "a subtle female gender bias with regard to the diagnosis of BPD" to sampling bias not reflecting the real gender distribution and an uneven expression in BPD (Sansone & Sansone, 2011).
Men with borderline personality disorder seem to "demonstrate an explosive temperament and higher levels of novelty seeking" and antisocial personality disorder while women show the tendency to "evidence eating, mood, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorders". There are also differences in treatment histories: Men are more likely to be treated for substance abuse, women with pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy (Sansone & Sansone, 2011).
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- Johnson, D. M., Shea, T., Yen, S., Battle, C., Zlotnick, C., Sanislow, C., Grilo, C. M., Skodol, A. E., Bender, D. S., Mcglashan, T. H., Gunderson, J. G. & Zanarini, M. C. (2003). Gender differences in borderline personality disorder: Longitudinal Personality Disorders study. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 44(4), 284-292.
- Sansone, R. A. & Sansone, L. A. (2011). Gender Patterns in Borderline Personality Disorder. Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, 8(5), 16-20.
- photograph by Vivian Maier via
"Psychoanalytic theory, if Horney is correct, is a theory of masculine psychology."
Kerr (1987)
Karen Horney was born in a little German town in 1885. As a young girl, she argued with her parents to let her attend grammar school - which was not the most typical thing to do for girls. Later, Horney studied medicine and - inspired by Freud - psychoanalysis. And later again, she started criticising Freud ... and was criticised for doing so (Hitchcock, 2005).
"Like all sciences and all valuations, the psychology of women has hitherto been considered only from the point of view of men." Karen Horney
"The view that women are infantile and emotional creatures, and as such, incapable of responsibility and independence is the work of the masculine tendency to lower women's self-respect." Karen Horney
"Karen Horney's contributions to psychology and, in particular, the psychology of women, are considerable. She remains one of the only women to be included in personality theory texts and was the first woman to present a paper on feminine psychology at an international conference. Her critique of Freud and the entire discipline of Psychology as androcentric unfolded in light of her observations relating to the sociocultural determinants of women's inferior position. She found it problematic that women were defined in relation to men and argued that penis envy, if it existed at all, was rooted, not in a wish to possess a penis but, rather, in a desire for the status and recognition afforded to men by the culture. She further argued that men's need to succeed and leave a name for themselves sprung from womb envy - their inability to carry and bear children. Horney was particularly moved to defend women against the charge that they were naturally masochistic. Women's dependence on men for love, money, security, and protection led women to overemphasize qualities like beauty and charm, Horney argued, but also to seek meaning through their relationships with husbands, children, and family." Held (2010)
"Even in Freud's circle, not all analysts agreed with Freud's assessment and there were debates concerning women's sexuality and the roles of castration and penis envy therein, notably among Karl Abraham, Ernest Jones, Helene Deutsch, and Karen Horney. Horney in particular argued for an inherent feminine disposition that is not merely a secondary formation premised on castration and she took issue with the ostensible effects of penis envy and women's supposed feelings of inferiority. As with some later feminist criticisms of Freud, Horney attempted to retrieve female sexuality, and by extension a valid form of feminine existence, by appealing to a genuinely independent nature and holding culture culpable for women's subordinate status. By thus reasserting the primacy of biological and social forces, however, Horney disputes precisely the idea that is central to Freud's hypothesis and that marks psychoanalysis as a unique field of inquiry, that of a distinctive psychical realm of representation that is unconscious." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
"The conception of what is normal varies not only with the culture but also within the same culture, in the course of time." Karen Horney
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- Hitchcock, S. T. (2005). Karen Horney. Pioneer of Feminine Psychology. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.
- Kerr, N. J. (1987). "Wounded Womanhood". An Analysis of Karen Horney's Theory of Feminine Psychology. doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6163.1987.tb00295.x
In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) officially classified homosexuality as a "sociopathic personality disturbance"; in 1968, it was reclassified as a sexual deviation. Over the next decades, the fight for reversal of this diagnosis "became a focus of the gay rights movement", the fight to be accepted as normal, as the classifications had an enormous impact on society's view of homosexuality. Disputing negative views became difficult since the APA classification "was supposedly based on scientific findings". In 1970, gay rights activists disrupted an APA convention in San Francisco aiming to be heard. "Hard words" were exchanged between the protestors and the APA members who hired security. Nevertheless, the protests had some impact and gay rights activists had a gay-focused panel at a convention that took place in 1971. The panel wanted the diagnosis to be removed from the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the APA), it remained. The activists returned in 1972 and asked again that homosexuality be not classified as a mental disorder, their request was denied again. Members of the panel were either homosexuals or psychiatrists, no speaker was both.
Photograph above: APA 1972 booth
The activists had difficulty finding a gay psychiatrist who was willing to be on the panel, risking stigma and
career damage, but they were finally able to convince Dr. John Fryer to
participate (Drescher & Merlino, 2007). However, Fryer was still reluctant
to come out to his colleagues, so calling himself Dr. H. Anonymous, he
wore a wig and a mask to disguise his face and used a microphone to
distort his voice. Bauthey-Gill, 2011
Today, the APA has an award named after John E. Fryer (1937-2003), the masked gay, anonymous psychiatrist (see photograph below) (via).
At the 1973 convention, the APA's Nomenclature Committee pointed out that a mental disorder was defined as something causing subjective distress on a regular basis and that was associated with impairment in social effectiveness of functioning. The conclusion was that homosexuality was not a disorder based on the definition of the term. The diagnosis was removed from the DSM in December 1973, newspapers ran headlines saying that "Twenty Million Homosexuals Gain Instant Cure". Not all APA members supported the decision, so the APA sent out a ballot in 1974 to vote on the removal and 58% voted to uphold the decision. Controversy continued but the APA stood behind the decision not to classify homosexuality as a disorder and in 1978, created the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists and a gay and lesbian task force. The DSM II, published in 1974, compromised and defined homosexuality as a Sexual Orientation Disturbance only if the person was "disturbed by, in conflict with, or wished to change their sexual orientation". This was removed in 1987 (Baughey-Gill, 2011).
Despite this new controversy and a few others like it, the APA
has helped make tremendous advances towards the recognition of
homosexuality as normal since its 1973 decision. In part because of the
APA’s decision, the United States will continue to see more research in
the 21st century that includes subjects of all sexual and gender orientations
as well as the increased acceptance of homosexuality by society
as a whole. As for now, being gay is finally okay with the APA. Baughey-Gill, 2011
The ICD (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems published by the World Health Organisation) removed homosexuality from its classification only in 1992 but kept "ego-dystonic sexual orientation" (via) - which was introduced as a "part of the consensus-building process connected with the removal of homosexuality" by the APA. It was removed in 1987 (Cochran et al, 2014).
The APA recommended to the WHO that the sexual orientation diagnoses be deleted from its ICD-10 version saying:
Since ICD-9, positive changes have occurred in the perceptions and legal status of homosexuality in many societies worldwide. Nevertheless, persons with non-heterosexual sexual orientation identities and/or behavior are still subject to societal stigma and discrimination that harm their health. The psychological and behavioral disorders associated with sexual development and orientation in ICD-10 are historically rooted in and support continuing unscientific stigmatization of homosexuality by health professions. Because stigmatization continues, the diagnoses in category F66 are likely to be used to diagnose homosexuality despite its accompanying caution against that practice. Further, use of F66 codes may impede appropriate treatment of underlying disorders (e.g., Major Depression). No scientifically accepted treatment method has been shown to effectively treat F66 diagnoses. A recent systematic review of the research literature found that insufficient evidence to support sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) in adults, no evidence that SOCE in children and adolescents affected adult sexual orientation, harm from SOCE, and the benefits that some reported from SOCE were related to non-SOCE aspects of treatment. Health professionals in nations where the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is used have operated without ICD F66-like diagnoses for more than 20 years without difficulties emerging. In doing so, they have appropriately used diagnostic codes that reflected the nature of complaints from the standpoint of distressing symptoms. APA
Its sixth revision, the ICD-6, published in 1948, classified homosexuality as a sexual deviation based on a personality disorder. The ICD-10 stated that sexual orientation per se was not the disorder but that there were mental disorders linked to sexual orientation (Cochran et al, 2014; Reed et al., 2017).
For its 11th revision, the ICD-11, published in 2017, the Working Group recommended the complete deletion of "Psychological and behavioural disorders associated with sexual development and orientation", as:
In this way, ICD-11 can address the needs of people with a same-sex orientation in a manner consistent with good clinical practice, existing human rights principles and the mission of WHO. Cochran et al., 2014
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Quotes from the Sid Davis (1916-2006) "safety" film Boys Beware (1961) below in which homosexuals are equated with pedophiles (colorised version: WATCH):
"What Jimmy didn't know was that Ralph was sick - a sickness that was not visible like smallpox, but no less dangerous and contagious - a sickness of the mind. You see, Ralph was a homosexual: a person who demands an intimate relationship with members of their own sex." "One never knows when a homosexual is about. He may appear normal and it may be too late when you discover he is mentally ill."
Sid Davis, who made over 150 films, receives particular mention for his excesses, exaggerations, and distortions, which went unchallenged because, unlike other filmmakers, he did not have a committee of educational advisors or a peer group overseeing his work. Davis's films focused on misery (...) and often ended in violent death, simply because a boy had driven too fast (The Bottle and the Throttle, 1968) or hitched a ride with a homosexual (Boys Beware, 1961) (Besley, 2002).
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- Baughey-Gill, S. (2011). When Gay Was Not Okay with the APA: A Historical Overview of Homosexuality and its Status as Mental Disorder. Ocean's Razor, 1(2), 4-16, via
- Besley, T. (2002). Counseling Youth. Foucault, Power, and the Ethics of Subjectivity. Westport: Praeger Publishers.
- Cochran, S. D., Drecker J., Kismödi, E., Giami, A., Garcia-Moreno, C., Atalla, E., Marais, A., Meloni Vieira, E., & Reed, G. M. (2014). Proposed declassification of disease categories related to sexual orientation in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11). Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 92, 672-679, via
- Reed, G. M., Drescher, J., Krueger, R. B., Atalla, E., Cochran, S. D., First, M. B., Cohen-Kettenis, P. T., Arrango-de Montis, I., Parish, S. J., Cottler, S., Briken, P., & Saxena, S. (2017). Disorders related to sexuality and gender identity in the ICD-11: revising the ICD-10 classification based on current scientific evidence, best clinical practices, and human rights considerations. World Psychiatry, 15(3), 205-221, via
- photographs via and via
Lilian Evelyn Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972), the "mother of modern management", studied literature at the University of California at Berkeley to become a teacher although her father was not convinced higher education was a good idea for women. At Berkeley, she became the first woman to give a commencement speech. She planned to continue her studies at Columbia University in New York with Brander Matthews who was a famed critic. Matthews, however, did not allow women to attend his lectures. Edward Lee Thorndike did and Lilian studied psychology with him; she completed her M.A. in literature.
After one year of studying for her Ph.D., Lilian went on a summer trip to Europe where she met Frank Gilbreth, her future husband. As her husband was interested in workplace efficiency and encouraging, Lilian changed her major from English to psychology and got her doctorate from Brown University. Her dissertation focused on psychological aspects of industrial management, i.e. job satisfaction, the role of human relations, individual differences, and incentives at the workplace. Lilian became a pioneer of organisational psychology, the first female member of the Society of Industrial Engineers, the first female psychologist with a U.S. postage stamp issued in her honour, and the first woman to receive the Hoover Medal for distinguished public service (via and via).
"Over seventeen years, the couple would have twelve children, two of whom co-authored the books Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes, which chronicled life in the busy Gilbreth household and were subsequently made into movies. Lillian and Frank were true partners both at home and in business, applying their scientific management principles to the running of their household and the businesses to whom they consulted after Frank sold his construction company. They wrote several books together, however, Lillian was never named co-author because the publishers were concerned about the credibility of the books should it be known that a woman was one of the authors - despite the fact that Lillian had a doctorate and Frank had not attended university. Nonetheless, Lillian developed a reputation in her own right as a major player in the field of industrial management." Held, 2010
"The use of certain words or phrases can express gender, ethnic, or racial bias either intentionally or unintentionally. The same is true of language referring to persons with disabilities, which in many instances can express negative and disparaging attitudes.
It is recommended that the word disability be used to refer to an attribute of a person, and handicap to refer to the source of limitations. Sometimes a disability itself may handicap a person, as when a person with one arm is handicapped in playing the violin. However, when the limitation is environmental, as in the case of attitudinal, legal, and architectural barriers, the disability is not handicapping—the environmental factor is. This distinction is important because the environment is frequently overlooked as a major source of limitation, even when it is far more limiting than the disability. Thus, prejudice handicaps people by denying access to opportunities; inaccessible buildings surrounded by steps and curbs handicap people who require the use of a ramp.
Use of the terms nondisabled or persons without disabilities is preferable to the term normal when comparing persons with disabilities with others. Usage of normal makes the unconscious comparison of abnormal, thus stigmatizing those individuals with differences. For example, state "a nondisabled control group," not "a normal control group."
The guiding principle for nonhandicapping language is to maintain the integrity of individuals as whole human beings by avoiding language that
- implies that a person as a whole is disabled (e.g., disabled person)
- equates a person with his or her condition (e.g., epileptic)
- has superfluous, negative overtones (e.g., stroke victim)
- is regarded as a slur (e.g., cripple)."
"The aim of the studies was to assess the effects of social categorization on intergroup behaviour when, in the intergroup situation, neither calculations of individual interest nor previously existing attitudes of hostility could have been said to have determined discriminative behaviour against an outgroup. These conditions were satisfied in the experimental design. In the first series of experiments, it was found that the subjects favoured their own group in the distribution of real rewards and penalities in a situation in which nothing but the variable of fairly irrelevant classification distinguished between the ingroup and the outgroup. In the second series of experiments it was found that: 1) maximum joint profit independent of group membership did not affect significantly the manner in which the subjects divided real pecuniary rewards; 2) maximum profit for own group did affect the distribution of rewards; 3) the clearest effect on the distribution of rewards was due to the subjects' attempt to achieve a maximum difference between the ingroup and the outgroup even at the price of sacrificing other ‘objective’ advantages."
Tajfel et al. (1971)
In 1971, Tajfel et al. showed eight high school students - who thought the study was on artistic taste - paintings by Paul Klee (1879-1940) and Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944). Based on their preferences they were assigned to two groups (X group and Y group). Then, they were given money which they had to allocate to the students of their in-group and the out-group (but not to themselves). The participants showed two tendencies: 1) Money between two students of the in-group or the out-group was allocated in a fair way, i.e., each received the same amount. However, 2) in-group favouritism could be observed as more points were given to the students of the in-group than to the out-group. In other words, gains of students of their own group were maximised in comparison to the out-group. That also meant that students were willing to give their own group fewer points if only the out-group got even fewer ones.
Example: Students chose to assign 8 points to their own group and 3 to the other group although they could have chosen to give 13 points each group (Stangor, 2004). Categorisation into groups based on arbitrary criteria and there it is: group favouritism. Tajfel (1971) concludes that discrimination is not necessarily related to a history of social conflict or hostility.
"Perhaps those educators in our competitive societies who from the earliest schooling are so keen on 'teams' and 'team spirit' could give some thought to the operation of these side effects."
Tajfel (1971)
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- Stangor, C. (2004). Social Groups in Action and Interaction. New York & Hove: Psychology Press
- Tajfel, H. (1971). Experiments in Intergroup Discrimination, download
- Tajfel, H., Billig, M. G., Bundy, R. P. & Flament, C. (1971). Social categorization and intergroup behaviour. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1(2), 149-178.
- image of Wassily Kandinsky via
"Yes. It can be a delusional symptom of psychotic disorders." Alvin F. Poussaint
"The American Psychiatric Association has never officially recognized extreme racism (as opposed to ordinary prejudice) as a mental health problem, although the issue was raised more than 30 years ago. After several racist killings in the civil rights era, a group of black psychiatrists sought to have extreme bigotry classified as a mental disorder. The association's officials rejected the recommendation, arguing that because so many Americans are racist, even extreme racism in this country is normative—a cultural problem rather than an indication of psychopathology." Alvin F. Poussaint
According to US-American psychiatrist Alvin Francis Poussaint, perceiving extreme racism as not pathologic means lending it legitimacy. He calls it a delusional symptom as (extreme) racists seek to resolve their internal conflicts by scapegoating a whole group of people. Poussaint also points out positive correlations between extreme prejudice and indicators of psychopathology and mentions the danger of violence (via). It is unclear how "extreme racism" is operationalised. In addition, if Poussaint is right (and there is something logical about seeing racism as a disorder), legal consequences need to be considered if extreme racism is classified as a mental disorder. In 1981, for instance, a white man killed his Chinese American neigbhour and constructed his defense on his "anxiety neurosis" (he seriously claimed to be afraid of "Orientals" and their martial arts capabilities). There have been attempts to classify racism as a mental illness (e.g. prejudice personality, intolerant personality disorder, pathological bias) for decades. Individualising racism completely may make it more difficult to tackle social inequalities (via). On the other hand, racism could perhaps be made less acceptable by labelling it as a disorder, as "not normal" in a normative sense... More discussion is needed.
"Examining racism’s shifting definition and subsequent treatment as cause and consequence of mental illness asks that we consider what psychologist Steven Bartlett terms the “social consequences of disease labeling.” Framing racism as a mental illness — and therefore an individual problem to be tackled psychologically — makes it harder for policymakers create effective policies to combat everyday social and political inequalities." W. Carson Byrd & James M. Thomas
"As a clinical psychiatrist, I have treated several patients who projected their own unacceptable behavior and fears onto ethnic minorities, scapegoating them for society's problems. Their strong racist feelings, which were tied to fixed belief systems impervious to reality checks, were symptoms of serious mental dysfunction. When these patients became more aware of their own problems, they grew less paranoid—and less prejudiced." Alvin F. Poussaint
"To be suspicious of a man because of the color
of his skin, the texture of his hair, his place
of origin, the way he speaks the language, or the
area in which he lives, is to be paranoid."
Earle L. Biassey, 1972
Sharon Tate, 26 and eight months pregnant, was one of the nine victims brutally killed by the Manson Family. The slaughtering was orchestrated by Charles Manson, "one of the most virulent racists that ever walked the planet", a psychopath with a swastika etched into his forehead. In order to incite the "race war" he was tired of waiting for, he ordered his followers to carry out the murders leaving words used by black power groups (which his devotees did with the blood of the victims). His followers did as they were told since otherwise they themselves would have been butchered by the remaining blacks who would finally win as they were "essentially savages" (via).
"Black men, thus deprived of the white women whom the political changes of the 1960s had made sexually available to them, would be without an outlet for their frustrations and would lash out in violent crimes against whites. A resultant murderous rampage against blacks by frightened whites would then be exploited by militant blacks to provoke an internecine war of near-extermination between racist and non-racist whites over blacks' treatment. Then the militant blacks would arise to sneakily finish off the few whites they would know to have survived; indeed, they would kill off all non-blacks.In this holocaust, the members of the enlarged Family would have little to fear; they would wait out the war in a secret city that was underneath Death Valley that they would reach through a hole in the ground. As the only actual remaining whites upon the race war's true conclusion, they would emerge from underground to rule the now-satisfied blacks, who, as the vision went, would be incapable of running the world. At that point, Manson "would scratch [the black man's] fuzzy head and kick him in the butt and tell him to go pick the cotton and go be a good nigger"." (via)
"His overriding fantasy was of a race war. He was a loser who would become a winner, and he would do it through white supremacy. The thing he called Helter-Skelter would ignite this war. This was the rationale for the slayings. It was a holy war then against the rich and the powerful. The racial aspects seem to me to be forgotten by those who sought to understand him and who gave him the attention he craved." Suzanne Moore
- Biassey, E. L. (1972). Paranoia and Racism in the United States. Journal of the National Medical Association, 64(4), 353-358.
- Poussaint, A. F. (2002). Is Extreme Racism a Mental Illness? Western Journal of Medicine, 176(1), 4.
- photographs of Sharon Tate (1943-1969) via and via and via and via
"On 1 September 1967, the Nobel Prize-winning civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech entitled 'The role of the behavioral scientist in the civil rights movement' to the American Psychological Association (APA, 1999; King, 1968). With eloquence and passion, Martin Luther King championed the civil rights struggle and spoke to the interests of his audience. He stressed how behavioural scientists could and should support the civil rights movement. King's eloquent and passionate speech is still relevant today - explaining how psychologists and other mental health professionals could help address today's pressing social issues."
Kinderman
Some excerpts:
(...) In the preface to their book, 'Applied Sociology' (1965), S. M. Miller and Alvin Gouldner state: 'It is the historic mission of the social sciences to enable mankind to take possession of society.' It follows that for Negroes who substantially are excluded from society this science is needed even more desperately than for any other group in the population.
For social scientists, the opportunity to serve in a life-giving purpose is a humanist challenge of rare distinction. Negroes too are eager for a rendezvous with truth and discovery. We are aware that social scientists, unlike some of their colleagues in the physical sciences, have been spared the grim feelings of guilt that attended the invention of nuclear weapons of destruction. Social scientists, in the main, are fortunate to be able to extirpate evil, not to invent it.
If the Negro needs social sciences for direction and for self-understanding, the white society is in even more urgent need. White America needs to understand that it is poisoned to its soul by racism and the understanding needs to be carefully documented and consequently more difficult to reject. The present crisis arises because although it is historically imperative that our society take the next step to equality, we find ourselves psychologically and socially imprisoned. All too many white Americans are horrified not with conditions of Negro life but with the product of these conditions-the Negro himself.
(...) Now there are many roles for social scientists in meeting these problems. Kenneth Clark has said that Negroes are moved by a suicide instinct in riots and Negroes know there is a tragic truth in this observation. Social scientists should also disclose the suicide instinct that governs the administration and Congress in their total failure to respond constructively.
What other areas are there for social scientists to assist the civil rights movement? There are many, but I would like to suggest three because they have an urgent quality.
Social science may be able to search out some answers to the problem of Negro leadership. E. Franklin Frazier, in his profound work, Black Bourgeoisie, laid painfully bare the tendency of the upwardly mobile Negro to separate from his community, divorce himself from responsibility to it, while failing to gain acceptance in the white community. There has been significant improvements from the days Frazier researched, but anyone knowledgeable about Negro life knows its middle class is not yet bearing its weight. Every riot has carried strong overtone of hostility of lower class Negroes toward the affluent Negro and vice versa. No contemporary study of scientific depth has totally studied this problem. Social science should be able to suggest mechanisms to create a wholesome black unity and a sense of peoplehood while the process of integration proceeds.
As one example of this gap in research, there are no studies, to my knowledge, to explain adequately the absence of Negro trade union leadership. Eight-five percent of Negroes are working people. Some two million are in trade unions but in 50 years we have produced only one national leader-A. Philip Randolph.
Discrimination explains a great deal, but not everything. The picture is so dark even a few rays of light may signal a useful direction.
(...) I have not lost hope. I must confess that these have been very difficult days for me personally. And these have been difficult days for every civil rights leader, for every lover of justice and peace.
"The student trained to reach decisions in the light of logic and of history will be disposed to recognize that, in a democratic country, governed as this is by the suffrage of its citizens, and given over as this is to the principle and practice of educating women, a distinction based on difference of sex is artificial and illogical. This quote shows how I felt about the unfair treatment for women in psychology after I was denied a Ph.D from Harvard, even though I had met all of the requirements." Mary Whiton Calkins
Mary Calkins was born on 30 March 1863 in Hartford, Connecticut. She attended the local elementary school and learned German in private lessons, attended Smith College, taught Greek at Wellesley College, a woman's college close to her family's home. She also instructed students in the fields of philosophy and psychology and was appointed to a newly created position in Wellesley's experimental psychology department although she had no training in psychology. Not being trained in psychology was not an obstacle, being a woman was. As at that time a great many schools did not admit women as students, she was hired only after petitions were made. Calkins furthered her education at Clark University for psychology and Harvard University for philosophy. Resistance continued: When she enrolled in William James's seminar, four men dropped it in protest, at Harvard she officially had the status of a guest since women could not register. James called her performance "the most brilliant examination for the Ph.D. that we have had at Harvard"; Calkins was denied the honour.
"Although she completed all of the requirements for the Ph.D., including passing exams, and though her Harvard professors recommended her for the degree, she was denied the honor simply because she was a woman."
Harvard's college for women, Radcliffe, offered her a degree which she turned down saying that she had done the work at Harvard. Mary Calkins is one of the first women to be offered the Ph.D.
Calkins set up a psychological laboratory, introduced scientific psychology ot Wellesley's curriculum, made research (which e.g. led to the research method "paired-associate technique"). She became a full professor, president of the American Psychological Association (the first woman president of APA) and president of the American Philosophical Society, received honorary degrees and was elected to honorary membership in the British Psychological Association (via and via).
