User:Zainyli/sandbox

Teachers College (1925-1930)

In May, 1925, Helen Woolley received an offer to become a director for the Institute for Child Welfare Research at Teachers College, Columbia University (Milar, 2004). Woolley became the only woman at the time to become a director of one of the most prestigious research centers (Milar, 2004). In an attempt to smooth the transition between her position at the Merrill Palmer School and her new position at Teachers College, Woolley travelled between Detroit and New York from January to June, 1926 (Milar, 2004). By April, 1926, Woolley started receiving criticism from friends and coworkers regarding her work ethics. The director of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Lawrence K. Frank, had interviewed the Dean of Teachers College, James Russell, and reflected on it in a memorandum:

“I told Dean Russell that had been approached by several of Dr. Woolley’s friends with a request that I help her out of the difficulties she was facing and that as nearly as I could understand the matter, Dr.Woolley’s temperamental aversion to any disputes or self-assertion put her at considerable disadvantage at Teachers College” (Frank, 1926).

In late May, it was discovered that Woolley had developed an abdominal tumour for which she had to undergo an appendectomy and hysterectomy (Milar, 2004). During her treatment, Teachers College was kindly supporting Woolley by continuing her salary and paying her medical bills (Russell, 1928). Despite her health issues, Woolley officially moved to New York in September 1926, and subsequently developed two nursery schools within Teachers College for the purpose of studying early childhood education (Fowler, 2002). She hired about fifteen female graduates to work under her, who developed innovative work on early childhood education and collectively advocated for nursey schools (Fowler, 2002).

The death of her close friend, Bess Cleveland, and her divorce from Paul, were only two of many factors in Woolley’s life that caused emotional instability (Fowler, 2002; Milar, 2004). Woolley took a leave of absence for a year and travelled to various nursery schools in England, Brussels, Vienna, and Geneva in order to gain knowledge on early childhood education in European countries (Fowler, 2002; Milar, 2004). She resumed her duties in August 1928 and presented two papers at the International Congress of Psychology Conference in Fall 1929 (Fowler, 2002).

Woolley was shocked when she was asked to resign in February 1930 by Dean William Russell, son of the previous Dean Russell (Fowler, 2002). Woolley’s accomplishments during her time at Teachers’ College included becoming an internationally-known researcher and scholar (Fowler, 2002), having multiple publications, and being considered as one of America’s top child psychologists by the age of 55 (Milar, 2004). Unfortunately, she felt that all of this went unrecognized when she was asked to resign, as Dean Russell cited difficulties in her teaching (Milar, 2004). Woolley harboured resentment towards Dean Russell, and went on to write an 11-paged typescript called, “The Experience of Helen T. Woolley in being employed in Teachers College, Columbia University, and in being dismissed from Teachers College.” (Milar, 2004). In May, Dean Russell replied to her claims by identifying multiple errors within her typescript which highlighted Woolley’s impaired recollection (Milar, 2004). Woolley spent the next decade attempting to find work in academia but found no success (Fowler, 2002).

Publications

During the course of her career, Woolley wrote and published three books and around fifty articles. These published works ranged in topic, and although the vast majority of her works were psychology related, she did publish some philosophy and neurology related articles as a graduate student at the University of Chicago (Milar, 2004). A list of some of her more well-known published works, particularly those published early in her career, can be found below.

Review of Carl Stumpf’s discussions on affective processes, who insists that sensory affections should be classified a specific class of sensations. Wooley discusses “(1) pain sensations and the pleasure sensations arising in the skin and vegetative organs; (2) the affective tone of higher senses, and (3) applications.” (Woolley, 1907)
 * Woolley, Helen Thompson (1907). "Sensory affection and emotion". Psychological Review. 14 (5): 329–344. doi:10.1037/h0074333. ISSN 0033-295X.

Woolley conducted an empirical study on colour vision in a seven-month-old, normal infant. She provides evidence for the theory that identifies the speech centre and right-handedness in the left hemisphere being developed around the same time in an infant.
 * Woolley, Helen Thompson (1910). "The development of right-handedness in a normal infant". Psychological Review. 17 (1): 37–41. doi:10.1037/h0074110. ISSN 0033-295X.

A literature review was conducted on 88 studies regarding the psychology of sex. Various aspects within the study of sex differences have been identified, including heredity, motor ability, memory, attention, and general intelligence, along with the impact of social influences.
 * Woolley, Helen Thompson (1914). "The psychology of sex". Psychological Bulletin. 11 (10): 353–379. doi:10.1037/h0070064. ISSN 0033-2909.

Woolley developed a scale that measures the mental and physical capabilities of adolescents, which was tested on 1430 students between the ages of 14-15. The scale is successful at comparing different groups and finding a relationship between manual and mental capabilities.
 * Woolley, Helen Thompson (1915). "A new scale of mental and physical measurements for adolescents and some of its uses". Journal of Educational Psychology. 6 (9): 521–550. doi:10.1037/h0075644. ISSN 0022-0663.