Charlotte Buhler And Modern Psychology

Charlotte Buhler

Throughout psychology’s history it can be observed that not many women are noted for their contributions. However, there are many women that have made enormous contributions to psychology even though their theories were ignored or not established. Modern psychology can be contributed to many of these women and their research. Charlotte Buhler was among several of the women who were not given the rightful acknowledgement for their involvement in the foundations of psychology. There is very little known about her and her influences to the world of psychology, but she can be considered one of the founders of humanistic and developmental psychology.

Background

Charlotte Buhler was the first child of Walter and Rose Malachowski in 1983 in Berlin, Germany. Born to two very artistic parents, mother a musician and father an architect; they both pushed her to pursue the arts. From a young age Charlotte discovered her immense interest in knowledge. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in science at the age of 22 at the University of Berlin and then completed her PhD 3 years later at the University of Munich. In-between this time she managed to get married and have her first child.

While attending the University of Munich, getting her PhD, she was being supervised by a man named Karl Buhler. Karl was a psychiatrist and psychologist himself who Charlotte admired and found she had shared similar ideas with him. They fell in love and were soon married. After completion of her PhD, her husband accepted a position in Dresden, Germany at the Technical University of Dresden.

While in Dresden, Charlotte worked with young adults researching their thought processes and development. She also assisted the Prussian school board and the...

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...inical work that eventually helped launch humanistic psychology. Other contributions that she is known for include the measurements of development she created such as intelligence and developmental tests, interpretation of diaries, and research with free play that is still used today in different fields, one of which is education. Her work was also was greatly used to create the social work principles that are used today.

Conclusion

It might be said that if Buhler had made more of an effort in working with the other bright minds she knew, her work may have been given more recognition in developmental theory and psychology in a whole, according to DeRobertis (2008). Though Charlotte Buhler’s works have gone somewhat ignored in contrast to other theories of develop mentalists during her time, she was and will always be an important part of the history of psychology.