Margaret was an only child in a prosperous New York City home. Her parents strictly taught her to read and write from an early age, but she entered school at the age of 7.  At a time when women were to tend to duties at home, Margaret fought her society’s judgment and found her own direction in the school of psychology (Goodwin, 2005, P.14). Instead, Margaret Floy Washburn fought her appointed role as a married woman in search of a spouse as she found security in contributing to the field of psychology.

Margaret graduated from high school at the age of 16 and entered Vassar College for women, where she graduated in 1891. She was a determined student, though, even though a woman had yet to admit a graduate student, Margaret wanted to study under James McKeen Cattell, in the psychology department at Columbia University, “but she was admitted only as an “auditor”” (Pillsbury, 1940). Therefore, ever the studious woman, Margaret naturally excelled at graduate school, receiving the first woman’s Ph.D. in psychology (Goodman, 1980).

Miss Washburn studied “the effects of visual imagery on tactile sensitivity (Goodwin, 2005, p. 95).” Roles Margaret enjoyed were: “Serv[ing] as APA president in 1921, coeditor ship of the American Journal of Psychology for more than a decade, and selected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences in 1931 (Goodwin, 2005, p.95).”  Even though higher education was looked down upon while she was growing up, Margaret’s roles showed that anyone could attain education if they so desired.

Teaching philosophy and psychology at Well’s College was not Margaret’s driving influence,  though she held these positions as many other scholars did before her from 1894 to 1900 (Goodman, 1980, p.71).  Later, students would remember her work of psychology from the classroom, but indirectly. The most outstanding achievement of her life would come later, as a textbook writer.

Margaret had a “fascination with the minds of humans and animals and was convinced that experimental psychology provided the appropriate methodology for exploring the topic (Goodman, 1980, p.69).”  She was very interested in the behaviors of people and so much that she “developed a motor theory of consciousness, but she was best known for her work in comparative psychology (Goodwin, 2005, p.96.).”   Her textbook, “The Animal Mind,” became the standard of the day, when students enjoyed her examples of animals experiencing “pain and pleasure (McClung, 2000).”  The text was based on humans thinking as if animals think the same, somehow.

 Margaret Floy Washburn was educated at Cornell University, and she learned under E.B. Titchener, who was known as the school of “Structuralism,” that became known as “functialism (Goodwin, 2005, p.97).” Therefore, Margaret Washburn became known as a functialist, too.  The main theoretical perspective of being a functionalist is that every thing has a function. In Margaret’s work, she believed that humans and animals had empathy and a level of consciousness, but every species has meaning, and she sought that deep near impossibility through “The Animal Mind.”

Throughout the book, thoughts such as “dementia, emotions, distraction, deliriums, fixed ideas, and psychogenic symptoms” pervade the author’s “importance of animal psychology and especially animal psychiatry in its relation to human psychiatry (Heron, 1927, p.75).”   The very reason that Margaret Washburn was interested in human relationships in her day holds true for today. The average person becomes curious about other people; Margaret only took her subjects into a realm further than most people care to, with her scientific investigation.

One example of Margaret’s animal subjects was a mollusk.  After studying her snail in different stimuli, she reported, “The snail can sense food at not over one centimeter away. All parts of the head and the first few mm of the ventral surfaces of the foot were found to be sensitive to food…A well-fed snail has its responses to the neighborhood of food decidedly weakened while a fasting snail will give the food reaction to mere mechanical stimuli and even to chemical stimuli which ordinarily produce a negative reaction (Washburn, 1912, p.373).”   Margaret’s finesse with her mollusk demonstrated how animals have and use their autonomic nervous system.  In McClung’s example, the paramecium was swimming in warm water, but it shrunk back from either hot or cold directions when added in its pool (McClung, 2000). Very much like people, animals become tense in disagreeable conditions.   

In Heron’s textbook, The Animal Mind: A Textbook of Comparative Psychology, 3rd edition, Margaret Floy Washburn said, “To the true psychologist there is another challenge which at least almost as enticing as that presented by the problem of how it feels to be another person or another animal (Heron, 1927, p.76).”  Therefore, Miss Washburn addressed the issue of trying to dwell in another’s skin.  Writing about the information in “The Animal Mind,” Heron found a classical, yet straightforward way to explain his summary, “The volume of material to be dealt with is enormous; the task of organization is stupendous; the critical analysis of the mass of experimental data taxes the clearest and most logical mind (Heron, 1927, p.78).”  He realized that Miss Washburn “was on to something” in her psychological studies of the animals comparing them to humans, but only time and many scientists could unravel the information that he had been handed.

Finally, according to Margaret’s paper titled, “Tropism and Instinctive Activities,” while at Vassar College, she tells us that, “There seems a high degree of resemblance between the physiological bases of emotion in reptiles and in mammals (Washburn, 1918, p.276).” Therefore, Margaret Floy Washburn showed that animal behavior was explained the same way human behavior can be: a subject with needs of simple requirements of food, shelter, and safety.  Basically, humans and animals resemble each other psychologically.    

Conclusion

 Margaret Washburn challenged herself to be the best in her field, so as a result of her determination and work in Psychology as well as many of hard working pioneering women after, psychology has become the field students know now. The purpose of this paper is to examine the life of Margaret Floy Washburn by addressing her background, theoretical perspective, and contributions to field of psychology.  Since Margaret Washburn believed in her own mind that she could attain higher goals for herself, she also challenged the educational system that tried to hold her back. The world of psychology owes much to her diligence and fight for freedom that opened the doors for others to follow.