Eleanor Maccoby Psychology

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An American psychologist, Eleanor Maccoby, is known for her research and scholarly contributions in association to family and child psychology. Developmental psychology was the main focus of her studies, but also included the study of parent- child relationships, gender, and social development of a child. Working along Skinner, Maccoby graduated with her Bachelors, Masters and Doctorates from the University of Michigan. After graduation, she then continued her psychology career at Harvard University for several years. She was then offered a job at Stanford University, where she was employed as a professor, conducted research, and became a member along with being the first woman appointed to Chair of the Department of Psychology. Her research resulted in many recognized publications. American Psychological Association recognized Maccoby as one of the most prominent psychologist. She received multiple awards, as well as being the first receiver of an award named in her honor, The Maccoby Award. Eleanor Emmons Maccoby …show more content…

“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 things. 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”, Maccoby stated when asked what influenced her passion for research in gender issues. Psychology became a field that she dedicated herself to. B.F. Skinners ideas had a major impact on her and influenced her to consider herself a “hardcore behaviorist”. In her early education, she was a behaviorist and then a learning theorist (APA, 1989). Later, she worked from a cognitive-developmental theory (O'Connell, 1990). The last of her work reflected an interactionist perspective (APA,

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