How Did Mary Cover Jones Contribute To Psychology

Pioneering psychologists are “the men and women who have shaped our understanding of what it means to be human over the past 400 years” (“Pioneers of Psychology”, n.d.). Stereotypes of pioneers in psychology include white, middle-class men, but numerous contributors are brilliant women. In fact, some the most important psychologists that pioneer ideas of Psychology are women. (Rutherford, n.d.), such as Dr. Mary Cover Jones. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the professional contributions of a distinguished psychologist, such as Dr. Mary Cover Jones. Specifically, this paper is constructed into the three following sections, including the (a) background; (b) professional accomplishments and (c) professional awards of Mary Cover Jones. Dr. Mary Cover Jones was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on September 1, 1896. She was the middle child of Carrie Louise (Higson) Cover and Charles Blaire Cover. Although her parents solely completed high school they had extremely high educational expectations for their children (Rutherford, 2012). Jones graduated from Johnstown High School in 1915 and continued her career as an undergraduate at Vassar College to study psychology. In the spring of 1919, Jones graduated from Vassar

Unfortunately, the anti-nepotism rules of the time prevented any married woman from holding a full professor position at colleges and universities (Rutherford, 2001). So in 1952, Jones half-heartedly accepted the position of Assistant Professor in the Education department at the University of California, Berkeley although she was more than qualified to be a full professor. It wasn’t until seven years later that the administrators at Berkley revoked that harsh rule and promoted her to a full professor in the department of psychology. Jones held this position for one year before retiring in 1960 (“Mary Cover Jones”