Observation

Inside the Psychologist’s Studio: Eleanor Maccoby

Some of the first women to enter the field of psychological research sought to examine differences between the sexes, even as they suffered from gender discrimination themselves, APS William James Fellow Eleanor Maccoby recently said in an interview with APS Past President Kay Deaux.

Maccoby, known widely for her contributions to developmental and gender studies research, spoke to Deaux at Stanford University on August 26, 2013, about Maccoby’s seminal work in child rearing. Maccoby noted that when she enrolled in graduate school and devoted herself to psychology entirely, the “heartland” of psychology was learning theory, based upon B.F. Skinner’s ideas, and that she considered herself a “hardcore behaviorist” at the time.

Maccoby became involved in the field of developmental psychology when she served on a team headed by Robert Sears, a psychology professor who specialized in child psychology. The team studied child rearing and the relationships between parents and children. That served to launch Maccoby’s career in child psychology.

The Stanford professor emerita has also been influential in the field of gender studies. Her most influential book, The Psychology of Sex Differences, written with colleague Carol Jacklin in 1974, reviewed more than 1,600 studies that compared the sexes, and concluded that many commonly held beliefs about sex differences turned out to have no basis in fact. They called these beliefs “myths”.

When asked how she became interested in gender issues, Maccoby replied, “All of us who were professional women at that time in a sense lived [with the consequences of sexism]. A group of us did work to try to see if we could redress some of those things.”

See more interviews with legends of psychological science here.

Comments

I was really glad to see this interview because I was watching an old episode of Star Trek. It was The Cage and Gene Roddenberry made a comment that is still true today. He said the people who objected to a women being second in command were women. I’m Catholic, and there’s nothing in the faith or Bible to women educating themselves or personal growth, unfortunately my greatest critics are women. They are not the only women who object, teenage girls as well. These are women who believe in human and civil rights. Excuse me if I don’t believe them.

I really enjoyed watching the interview with Professor Maccoby, especially the last 10 minutes where you get a small sense of her career transition 26 years after formal retirement. How fitting to conclude the interview with her verse on time, implicating developmental psychology’s interest in the early, middle and later years of life.

Eleanor!! What a pleasure to see and hear you! This is Bud Fine. One of the most wonderful periods in my life was being a grad. student at Boston University (1953-1956)and getting to know you and “Mac”. (For the info. of readers, Eleanor’s husband, Nathan Maccoby, was Chairman of the Psych.Dept. at the time and what a great Dept. it was.)

I would love to discuss with you the state of the field of Psych.as it now exists. My e-mail address is attached.

Re your comment about your age, when I lived in Harvard, MA there was a special cane that was given to the oldest resident of the town. When it came time for the cane to be
given to Elvira Scorgie, when she was 100 years old, her comment was “Thank you for the cane. I will treasure it for
years to come.” She lived to be 105. Keep it going, Eleanor.


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