Graphic by Eilidh McNaughton By Eilidh mcnaughtonHistorically, the field of psychology has been dominated by white male researchers and lacked diversity. Psychological theories and data have also been used to promote racist ideas, for example, claiming racial differences in intelligence were a result of biology as opposed to a lack of education or other environmental factors which some researchers continue to argue (Winston, 2020). People of colour who pursued careers in psychology faced a range of difficulties in progressing their careers. This included Dr Mamie Phipps Clark, who faced much prejudice as a Black woman in psychology during the mid-1900s. However, Clark was committed to improving the lives of young Black children and despite the challenges she faced, she made important contributions to psychology, the Civil Rights Movement and social services which should be recognised. Clark was born in 1917 in Arkansas and received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in psychology before going on to study for a PhD (Butler, 2021). Henry Garrett, a scientific racist who worked with and supported racial extremists and neo-Nazi groups, supervised Clark’s doctoral dissertation (Winston, 2020). Clark continued to work on psychological research despite discouragement from Garrett and became the first Black woman to earn a Doctor of Philosophy degree in psychology from Columbia University (McNeill, 2017). One of Mamie’s largest contributions to psychology and the Civil Rights Movement was her work on the doll tests with her husband, Kenneth. These were a series of studies conducted in the 1940s which investigated the impact of segregation on Black children. In this research, young Black children were presented with two dolls, one Black and one white, and were asked which one they preferred to play with. The found that most children preferred the white doll and assigned it positive traits whereas negative traits were assigned to the Black doll. This showed that Black children “became aware of their racial identity at about age three, and—simultaneously with their awareness of racial identity—acquired a negative self image.” The negative traits which the children attached to their own identity, Clark noted, were perpetuated by segregation and prejudice (Butler, 2021). Dr Kenneth Clark stated that, “these children saw themselves as inferior and they accepted the inferiority as part of reality” (Blakemore, 2018). This research inspired several future studies concerning racial identification and preference among minority children (American Psychological Association, 2007). As well as this, Clark’s research also opened up areas of exploration in the evolution of developmental psychology, which studies growth, change and consistency over the life course (Butler, 2021). Clark and Clark testified in many school segregation trials in the South on the effect of prejudice and discrimination on personality development, using the doll tests along with other research findings. They were even part of the case of Brown v Board of Education (McNeill, 2017) which was a key Supreme Court case in 1954 where the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. This decision has been described as ‘one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement’ (History.com Editors, 2021). Dr Kenneth Clark’s testimony, which drew on the results of the doll tests as well as other psychological research at the time, was an influential part of the case for integration in schools. His analysis showed that segregated schools were inherently unequal and so unconstitutional. This was the first time that social science research was used in a Supreme Court Case (American Psychological Association, 2007). Despite her accomplishments, Dr Mamie Phipps Clark was unable to find a job in academia and she eventually stopped pursuing her own research, instead moving to work in a different sector. In 1946, Clark and her husband opened the Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem, New York. This was the only organisation in the city which provided mental health services to Black children. Initially, the centre offered psychological testing as well as psychiatric and social services, but later expanded to offer academic services in attempt to reduce barriers that Black children faced in obtaining success. Clark managed the centre until 1979 when she retired, however, the centre is still active today (McNeill, 2017). Mamie Phipps Clark passed away in 1983 of lung cancer after a long career dedicated to improving the lives of minority youths and highlighting the issues that they faced (McNeill, 2017). Today, women make up the majority of new psychology doctorates, early career psychologists and the psychology work force (Willyard, 2011). Yet people of colour remain significantly underrepresented in the field (Lin et al., 2018). People of colour face issues when trying to break into psychology (York, 2020), progress their careers and also report receiving a lack of recognition for their work (Bhopal et al., 2016). In addition to this, a small number of researchers are still pursuing and promoting racist science (Winston, 2020) and more needs to be done to address these issues. An emphasis should also be placed on diversifying teaching at all stages of education within psychology, recognising the work of psychologists such as Dr Mamie Phipps Clark as well as highlighting psychology’s racist past. References
American Psychology Association. (2007, July). Segregation Ruled Unequal, and Therefore Unconstitutional. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/research/action/segregation#:~:text=Psychologists%20Kenneth%20and%20Mamie%20Clark,of%20Education%20of%20Topeka%2C%20Kan Bhopal, K., Brown, H. & Jackson, J. (2016). BME academic flight from UK to overseas higher education: aspects of marginalisation and exclusion. British Educational Research Journal 42(4), 240-257.https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/376970/1/__soton.ac.uk_ude_personalfiles_users_kb4_mydocuments_ECU_Publications_BERJ%2520v2%25204April2015_BERJ%2520final%2520May2015.pdf Blakemore, E. (2018, Aug 31). How Dolls Helped Win Brown v. Board of Education, History. https://www.history.com/news/brown-v-board-of-education-doll-experiment Butler, S. (2021, March 12). Mamie Katherine Phipps Clark (1917–1983), Encyclopedia of Arkansas. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/mamie-katherine-phipps-clark-2938/ History.com Editors (2021, Jan 19). Brown v. Board of Education, History. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/brown-v-board-of-education-of-topeka Lin, L., Stamm, K., & Christidis, P. (2018). How diverse is the psychology workforce? Monitor on Psychology, 49(2), 19. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/02/datapoint McNeill, L. (2017, Oct 26). How a psychologist’s work on race identity helped overturn school segregation in 1950s America, Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/psychologist-work-racial-identity-helped-overturn-school-segregation-180966934/ Willyard, C. (2011). Men: A growing minority? gradPSYCH, 1, 40. Winston, A. S. (2020). Scientific racism and North American psychology. In A. S. Winston (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.516 York, K. (2020). BAME representation and psychology. The Psychologist, 33, 4. https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-33/january-2020/bame-representation-and-psychology
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