Knowra Margaret Floy Washburn Margaret Floy Washburn Margaret Floy Washburn was an American psychologist whose research on animal behavior helped establish comparative psychology. In 1894, she became the first woman to earn a PhD in psychology in the United States.
Edward B. Titchener : An English-born psychologist who founded structuralism and trained generations of experimental psychologists at Cornell University. Washburn earned her doctorate under Titchener at Cornell and became his first doctoral student.
Comparative psychology : The study of similarities and differences in behavior and mental processes across animal species. This was the field Washburn helped develop through experimental and theoretical work on animal behavior.
The Animal Mind : Washburn’s 1908 book surveying experimental evidence about sensation, learning, and mental processes in animals. This influential text brought her comparative research together and remained a standard reference for decades.
Women in psychology : The history and contributions of women who conducted research, taught, and built institutions in psychology. Washburn’s doctorate and career became a landmark in women’s participation in the discipline.
G. Stanley Hall : An American psychologist who founded the first psychology laboratory in the United States and helped establish the American Psychological Association. Hall supervised Washburn’s graduate work at Harvard before she completed her doctorate at Cornell.
Introspection : The examination and report of one’s own conscious experience. Washburn connected animal behavior to human consciousness while working in a discipline shaped by introspective methods.
Animal learning : Changes in animal behavior resulting from experience, including conditioning, habit formation, and problem solving. Washburn reviewed experiments on learning to assess what animal actions could reveal about mental life.
American Psychological Association : A professional organization founded in 1892 to advance psychology as a science and profession in the United States. Washburn became its second woman president, in 1921, following Mary Whiton Calkins.
Mary Whiton Calkins : An American psychologist who developed paired-associate learning and became the first woman president of the American Psychological Association. Calkins completed doctoral requirements at Harvard but was denied the degree, unlike Washburn.
Animal behavior : The observable actions and responses of animals, studied in relation to their environments and internal states. Her research treated animal actions as evidence for understanding mental processes.
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