| Childhood/Family Life
Leta Stetter Hollingworth had a
bleak and unfortunate
childhood. She was born on May 25th, 1886
to Margaret Elinor Danley and John G. Stetter. Born
near Chadron, Nebraska,
Leta was the eldest of three
daughters, followed by Ruth and Margaret in close succession. Leta had little chance to get to know her
mother. Birthing three children in three
years proved to be too taxing on Margaret Elinor’s tiny body, and she
died
after the birth of the youngest daughter. Shortly
after the death of Leta’s mother, John
Stetter left his three daughters
to be raised by his late wife’s parents, Margaret and Samuel Danley. Leta had now lost both biological parents
before her 4th birthday. (Hochman, n.d.)
For Leta, growing up in her grandparent’s log cabin
was not an
entirely negative experience. Hochman
(n.d.) notes, however, that her early childhood journal does maintain a
significantly
melancholy overtone. Life did not
improve for Leta when her father returned to reclaim his children. When Leta was 12 years old, she and her two
sisters were taken to Valentine, Nebraska
to live with their tyrant step-mother and a father they barely knew. John Stetter had remarried to Fanny Berling,
a woman who was verbally abusive towards her step-children and
completely
authoritarian (Klein, 2000). Leta termed
the four years of her life in Valentine as the “fiery furnace” in her
journal,
tainted by alcoholism in the family, and depression for Leta herself. Finally, in 1902, at the age of 16, Leta
graduated
from Valentine High School and was able to escape from this
life by enrolling at
the University
of Nebraska
(Klein, 2000).
Adult Life
Leta’s quality of life greatly
improved during her time in
college. She excelled as a student and
fostered a healthy and happy social life. It
was at the University
of Nebraska
where Leta
met her future husband, Harry Levi Hollingworth. Harry
went on to pursue graduate work at Columbia University
while Leta finished her
undergraduate work. In 1906, Leta
graduated Phi Beta Kappa, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree and a
Nebraska
State Teacher’s Certificate (Hochman, n.d.). Leta
taught high school in Harry’s home town
of DeWitt, Nebraska
for two
years until Harry earned an
assistant professorship position at Columbia. Leta
then moved to New York
and married Harry Hollingworth on December 31, 1908
(Hochman, n.d.).
Leta had a happy and healthy
relationship with Harry, but
the marriage proved to be an unexpected obstacle as she attempted to
start a
career in New York. Not until moving to New York and becoming a wife did
Leta learn
of the State Board of Education’s refusal to hire married women to
teach. The newlyweds were counting on
Leta’s
teaching to supplement their income, and without it they were forced to
live in
poverty, barely able to afford even their small, dark apartment. After being denied employment, Leta attempted
to pursue graduate work at Columbia
like her husband, but she was unable to acquire a fellowship position
or scholarship
because of her gender.
Leta, unable
to exercise her ambitions and talents,
sunk into a deep and persistent depression that did not improve until
1911 when
Harry was hired to research the effects of caffeine for The Coca-Cola
Company. Leta was immediately hired by her
husband as
a research assistant, and was finally able to take graduate courses at Columbia
(Hochman, n.d.). In 1913, she received her
Master’s Degree and
shortly thereafter was appointed the position of consulting
psychologist at Bellevue
Hospital. During this time, Leta went on to earn her
Ph.D. from Columbia
under the guidance of Edward Thorndike. She
performed so well that she was not
required to take an oral
examination before receiving her doctorate degree in 1916 (Klein,
2000). Shortly after earning her Ph.D.,
Leta accepted
an offer to teach at Columbia
University’s
Teacher’s College while still
maintaining her involvement at Bellevue Hospital
(Hochman, n.d.). She continued teaching
and performing
research at Columbia
University
until she died
at the age of 53, on November 27, 1939 (Hochman, n.d.).
Professional Accomplishments
Leta Stetter Hollingworth
started her research career by
challenging the variability hypothesis that supposedly explained and
justified
female inferiority. Most likely sparked
by the obstacles she had encountered simply due to being a woman, Leta
was the
first psychologist to research this topic. She
compared the mental and physical
variability of males and females of
different age groups, and concluded that there are no significant
differences
in variability between genders. These
findings disproved the variability hypothesis and allowed that men and
women
are equally capable of attaining eminence (Benbow, 1990).
Leta was also the first to
research the validity of
“functional periodicity,” a commonly held belief at the time that women
made
lousy scientists due to their instability caused by their menstrual
cycle. This was the topic of Leta’s
Doctoral thesis,
and was the high quality research that earned her exemption from her
final oral
examination. Leta measured various skills
and ability of 23 females and 2 males for three months.
She was unable to find any significant
differences in scores between any phases of the female’s menstrual
cycle,
disproving another theory that stood in the way of women’s involvement
in
science (Hochman, n.d.). After earning
her Ph.D., Leta’s focus shifted to the field of child psychology. She did, however, maintain an interest in the
psychology of women, publishing on the topic as late as 1927.
In 1916, while teaching a special education class,
Leta sought
out an exceptional child for the sake of contrast and was surprised
when the
8-year old boy scored above 180 on the Stanford-Binet Scale (Klein,
2000). This incident began Leta’s life
long work in
the psychology of the exceptional child, for which she is most commonly
known. Leta’s research in the early
1920’s focused on identifying gifted children, and how to interact with
them
based on their unique needs. Leta
published Special Talents and Defects in 1923,
and in 1926 Gifted Children: Their Nature
and Nurture summarized the results of a three-year experiment that
identified characteristics of exceptional children’s family life,
mental
condition, and temperament, as well as proposing an appropriate
curriculum in
school (Hochman, n.d.). The opening of
the Speyer School
in New York City
in 1936 provided Leta a chance to further research gifted children. The Speyer School,
also referred to as “Leta Hollingworth’s School for Bright Children”
was a
special school for children of 130+ IQ, the perfect place for Leta to
experiment with her curriculum: “Evolution of Common Things.” This curriculum allowed the children to steer
their own learning and freely explore their curiosities of the world
around
them under the guidance and supervision of Leta. Leta’s
final publication, Children Above 180 IQ (1942),
summarized
the findings of a twelve-year longitudinal study that determined such
children
often suffer from a lack of stimulation and parental nurturing,
resulting in
adjustment problems later in life (Hochman, n.d.).
Contributions to Psychology
Leta Stetter Hollingworth was a
lifelong proponent of
experimental objectivity, as well as a pioneer for two specific fields
of
psychology. Leta single handedly
dismantled two substantial obstacles that stood in the way of women’s
involvement in psychology, or any scientific field, for that matter. Because of her work, future women would not
have to deal with unchecked acquisitions of innate mediocrity or
menstrual disability
in their pursuit of scientific eminence. By
recognizing that these obstacles were based
on no more that “armchair
dogma” (Benbow, 1990, ¶ 4), Leta had recognized that women face
their own
unique set of challenges, thereby acknowledging a field of psychology
that had
yet to be explored: the psychology of women.
As the first
to perform research that explored the
inner workings of uncommonly intelligent children, Leta is also
credited at the
founder of the psychology of the exceptional child.
Her research was able to successfully identify
exceptional children because of her strict and selective use of only
the most
valid and reliable intelligence tests, a selectiveness that has
permeated all
intelligence testing through her influence, and ensured the continued
usefulness of such testing. Leta’s
discoveries of exceptional children’s special needs and proneness to
adjustment
issues led to reform in the education system and flexible curriculums
that can
be varied to better suit the children’s needs. While
her motivation was to improve the
quality of life for exceptional
young people, Leta indirectly performed a great service for mankind. She has made it possible to harness these
exceptional children’s full potential. Several
of today’s most brilliant minds began
their academic careers in gifted and talented programs that started in
the 70’s
and early 80’s under the influence of Leta’s research findings. These are the same minds that are attempting
to find a cure for cancer, solve our pollution problems, explore our
solar
system, etc. Who knows if they’d still
be doing what they’re doing if not for the specialized curriculums
devised by
Leta Stetter Hollingworth eight decades ago?
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