Summarize Leta Stetter Hollingworth’s contributions to psychology.
Leta Stetter Hollingworth was born in the year 1886. She attained her bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska and wanted to be a psychologist. She was concerned about the mental well-being of gifted students and how they could be given a friendly educational environment so that their development is ensured.
Hollingworth wanted to prove wrong the various misconceptions that prevailed in the American society regarding women. There was this belief that menstruating women are psychologically impaired. She also challenged the notion that intelligence is inherited and that women are intellectually inferior to males. She believed that women are given submissive roles in a society by the males, and that is why women are less found in the positions of prominence.
Leta Hollingworth’s contributions to Psychology are summarized in the following:
i. Leta’s firm beliefs and solid logical questioning of the prevailing social norms regarding intellectual inferiority of women influenced many scientists and psychologists of her time. She carried out tests and proved that there was no evidence, which will tag menstruating women as “intellectually impaired”.
ii. Leta discussed with Terman that the reason behind less women being termed as gifted than men is because of social factors and not intellectual inferiority. Though Terman held his belief of inheritance of intelligence, he eventually modified his stance regarding gender differences in comparing intelligence of men and women.
iii. Leta found out that like women, there were some individuals, who were tagged as ‘mentally defective’ in the society. She found out that those people were coping with their personal and social problems. She wrote about this topic in “The Psychology of the Adolescent” in the year 1928.
iv. She was concerned throughout her life on how to provide proper educational environment to the gifted young students. The students, who were gifted, were often mistreated and punished in school for being over smart.