Helen Thompson Woolley
Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley was an American psychologist, known for her contributions to the educational sector, research on sex differences and research methods. Woolley's interest in scientific inquiry was prompted by the work of her father, Paul Thompson, who was an inventor. Woolley's academic achievement and resultant scholarship allowed her to pursue studies in psychology at the University of Chicago.
Woolley's university studies marked the beginning of her career in experimental and applied psychology. Her controversial dissertation, titled The Psychological Norms in Men and Women, attracted the interest and the scrutiny of the scientific world as it was the first major piece of psychological research explicitly examining the similarities and differences of the mental traits of women and men.
Woolley's husband, Paul Woolley, was a determining force in the course of her career, as the constant relocations required by his profession as a physician limited her academic opportunities. Following their wedding, Woolley followed Paul to Japan and subsequently the Philippines, where she started working as a researcher for the Bureau of Education, marking her first endeavour in developmental psychology. Woolley's work in education continued with her involvement in the Vocation Bureau, the Merrill-Palmer School and the Institute for Child Welfare Research at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Woolley's late life was plagued by her deteriorating mental health, which impacted her interpersonal relationships as well as occupational status. At the age of 73, she died of an aortic aneurysm at her daughter's home in Havertown, Pennsylvania.
Early life
Helen Bradford Thompson was born on November 6, 1874, in Englewood, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Her father was David Wallace Thompson, a shoe salesman and an inventor, producing implements such as burglar alarms, a heat regulating thermostat for a coal furnace, and a letter sorting device, and her mother was Isabella Perkins Faxon Thompson, an active missionary during a time when it was unusual for women to take on interests outside the home. She was the second of three daughters and although her parents supported their education, her elder sister Jane had been forced to leave the University of Michigan after one year due to the financial burden.Woolley graduated first in her class from Englewood High School in 1893, delivering a valedictorian speech titled "The Advance Towards Individual Freedom by the Aid of Invention", which reflected her inclination towards scientific contributions in social development. Originally intending to be a teacher, she received a scholarship to the University of Chicago and was able to attend by living at home. Morse speculates that the family was likely affected by The Panic of 1893 and that Woolley might not have been able to complete her degree without the scholarship.
Education
Woolley joined the Department of Philosophy, Psychology, and Pedagogy. Although her major was in philosophy, she took courses in neurology and psychology with a particular interest in empirical psychology. She took courses with James Rowland Angell, John Dewey, George Herbert Mead, Henry Herbert Donaldson and James Hayden Tuft while at the university. In her junior year, she was offered scholarships in both physics and psychology by the university, and accepted the psychology scholarship. Upon completion of her undergraduate degree in 1897, Woolley was granted a fellowship for graduate work in psychology, supervised by Angell. She published papers in psychology, philosophy, and neurology during her graduate studies at Angell's encouragement. Woolley graduated summa cum laude with her PhD in 1900 and her performance was lauded two years later to fellow University of Chicago graduate John B. Watson by Dewey and Angell.Women who completed PhDs in 20th century were proportionate to men in receiving acceptance into professional organizations such as APA, yet their occupational status was incomparable. Women's contributions in academics were significantly under-represented, and academic positions were difficult to be obtained, especially for married women. Upon completion of her PhD, Woolley was recognized by the Association of Collegiate Alumnae and was awarded a European Fellowship. She studied with Carl Stumpf and Arthur Konig in Berlin, and later with Eduard Tulouse and Pierre Janet in Sorbonne.
Dissertation
Under the direction of Angell, Woolley's doctoral dissertation investigated the performance of 25 males and 25 female university students on "motor ability, skin and muscle senses, taste and smell, hearing, vision, intellectual faculties and affective processes". The thesis was titled "Psychological Norms in Men and Women". Her thesis attracted much attention as it significantly challenged the societal standards of the time. It was the first major scientific experimental research comparing the mental traits of men and women. Woolley adopted the approach of comparing distributions of scores on each test between sexes instead of reporting average performance of all participants. The results supported that men presented higher average performance on motor skills tests, whereas women were better at finer sensory discrimination; women were more skilled in memory and association tasks within intellectual faculties, whereas men had advantage in tests of ingenuity. Woolley accounted the differences between sexes as the characteristics which were most beneficial evolutionarily for sexual reproduction.Helen Woolley later published her dissertation in The Mental Traits of Sex, where her work was criticized for whether women in her sample were an accurate representation of the sex in general. One criticism was that college women and college men were not comparable because college women are usually of the highest intelligence in their respective families and/or driven by especially strong ambition, while college men follow a generally ordinary trajectory. This was the stereotypical view of educated women during the early 20th century. However, a new class of university educated women began to enter the realms of science and social science and enthusiastically applied their expertise on social and political issues of that time.
Personal life
Woolley met her husband, Paul Gerhardt Woolley in university when she was a senior and Paul was finishing medical studies at Chicago. Soon after meeting, they were engaged and remained engaged for eight years during which time both completed their professional training. After completing their undergraduate studies, Woolley was offered a graduate fellowship and remained in Chicago while Paul left for residency at Johns Hopkins University.After working in Massachusetts for four years, Woolley left her job and moved to Japan where Paul was working as an epidemiologist. She and Paul were married in Yokohama. Soon thereafter, they moved to the Philippines where Paul directed a laboratory. In the Philippines, Woolley began working for the Bureau of Education, performing research on childhood education and the best years for learning. While Woolley took on this project, Paul took a job in Siam doing public health work and manufacturing vaccines for smallpox and anthrax. She joined Paul once her project was done.
When Woolley became pregnant, Paul sent her home out of concern for her and the baby's health. At six months pregnant, Woolley took a boat to the West Coast, then taking a train back to her parents’ home, arriving barely six weeks before her first daughter, Eleanor Faxon Woolley, was born on August 26, 1907. Eleanor's birth sparked Woolley's interest in child and developmental psychology.
After spending a year in Omaha, Nebraska the family moved to Cincinnati. Paul began teaching at the medical school, while Woolley was a philosophy lecturer at the University of Cincinnati. However, during their years in Cincinnati, Woolley and Paul drifted apart. Paul eventually took on a job in Detroit running a medical testing laboratory, and Woolley left Cincinnati in 1921 to follow Paul to Detroit.
In 1924, Paul contracted tuberculosis from the diagnostic laboratory and left for a sanatorium in Pasadena, California. Paul Woolley filed for a divorce from Woolley in 1927 with the plans of marrying Millie Thompson and eventually died in 1932. Woolley died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 72 in Pennsylvania on Christmas Eve of 1947.
Career
The Vocation Bureau (1911–1921)
Helen Woolley was a pioneer in the practical application of developmental psychological principles. As director of the Cincinnati Vocation Bureau, appointed in 1911, she contributed significantly to the understanding of influential factors in the physical and mental development of adolescents. The Vocation Bureau was responsible for the issuance of "working certificates" to children between the ages of 14 and 16 years and therefore provided a wide pool of data for Woolley to successfully conduct her research.Woolley aimed to establish intelligence tests appropriate for adolescents and the statistical norms to accompany such tests, as well as examine the potential relationship between test and job performance. Woolley compared the performance of 14-year-old subjects who had joined the workforce to subjects regularly attending school classes for the span of four years. After completing an extensive data analysis with her assistant, Charlotte Rust Fischer, Woolley did not find support for her cognitive tests; however, her project increased awareness of the utility of experimental psychology in the advancement of the public-school sector and educational policies. The results of the study were subsequently published in 1926 under the name . The Vocation Bureau was expanded to include the testing of children in order to establish class placements.
She was additionally the first woman and first psychologist to be appointed president of the National Vocational Guidance Association in 1921.