Spence, Janet Taylor

Janet Taylor Spence was born on August 29, 1923 in Toledo , Ohio . She was the eldest of two daughters. Her sister was born in 1927 .

Parents Janet Taylor Spence met in New York . Her father John worked as a reporter , her mother Helen received a master 's degree in economics from Columbia University . ^[3]

John joined the school board after running for governor , and Helen worked with the League of Women Voters. ^{[4] [5]}

In 1945, at Oberlin College , Spence received a bachelor 's degree in psychology. In the fall, after finishing her undergraduate studies, she continued her postgraduate studies at Yale University , which she had previously left for an internship in New York. It was here that she moved from clinical practice to studies of human behavior. ^[6]

She was later transferred to Iowa State University . Yale turned out to be an important part of her life, since it was there that she met her future husband and co-author of the Hall-Spence hypothesis of recognizing Kenneth Spence's discrimination . While at Iowa State University, she was a graduate student doing research on anxiety. ^{[4] [5]}

It is important to note that while attending Yale as a clinical student, Spence worked under the direction of Clark L. Hull , author of the theory of learning, one of the most significant theories of the 20th century . ^[6]

Continuing the Hall-Spence hypothesis, in her dissertation, Janet studied the possibility of anxiety, which is a dispositional trait.

One of her accomplishments was the creation of a tool to measure her hypothesis. This instrument, called the Taylor Manifesto Alarm Scale, “consisted of 50 statements that showed clear concern when the subjects answered in a certain way,” is one of her most recognized works, especially because it was the first of its kind. Janet defended her dissertation in 1949, as a result of which she received a Ph.D. in psychology. ^{[4] [5] [7]}

After graduation, Spence was given the opportunity to become the first woman to be a teacher of psychology at Northwestern University . In 1951 , her first article, "Anxiety and concentration, unconditionally reflex stimulus, as determinants of the level of formation of conditioned reflexes for the eyelids," was published in collaboration with Kenneth Spence. In the same year, her first self-written article, “Relation of anxiety to the conditioned reaction of the eyelids,” was published.

Later, she received the position of assistant professor at Northwestern University, where she worked until 1960 . ^[8] Already as a professor, she wrote a statistical training manual. ^{[8] [4] [5]}

Janet Taylor and Kenneth Spence got married on December 27, 1959 and soon afterwards moved to Iowa. Due to the fact that she was a woman, this was the reason for her refusal to work at the Department of Psychology at the University of Iowa. Women did not work at the University. ^[8] Then she got into the Veterans Hospital in Iowa City, a psychologist and researcher. While working in the hospital, she greatly expanded her ability to study schizophrenia. In 1964, Janet's husband was invited to work at the University of Texas , they moved to Austin , Texas . Like in Iowa, she could not get a job at the university because she was a woman. ^[8] Then she went to work at an institution for the mentally retarded, called Austin State School. There she studied with both normal and mentally retarded children. Later, the Department of Educational Psychology, she was offered the position of head of the department of psychology at the University of Texas. ^{[4] [5] [7]}

Her husband died on January 12, 1967 , but this did not stop her from continuing her research in psychology.

In 1970, Spence was elected a member of the Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association (APA). Two years later, she became president of the Southwest Psychological Association. In 1974, she began reviewing Modern Psychology, where five years earlier she had become assistant editor Gardner Lindzi. In the mid-late 1970s, she was a member of the APA Board of Directors. In 1985, she also became the sixth female president of APA. ^{[4] [5]}

In 1989, she founded and became the first elected president of the American Psychological Society (now the Association of Psychological Sciences). In 1993, she was awarded the prize of the National Academy of Sciences for outstanding achievements in the field of scientific review. She was awarded three honorary doctorates at Oberlin College , Ohio State University and Toledo University . She also received a gold medal from the American Psychological Foundation for her achievements in psychology in 2004 (American Psychologist, 2004). She was a visiting professor at Harvard twice. ^[four]

In 2009, the Board of Directors of the APO (APS) instituted the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Contributions to an Early Career, with the goal of recognizing the rising star’s psychological science. The award is a worthy tribute to Spence, which has developed new research approaches and innovative tools, including the Taylor Manifesto anxiety scale and attitudes to the women's scale, as well as crossing disciplinary boundaries with work on topics ranging from schizophrenia, developmental psychology to gender bias. ^[9]

• Spence, J.T. (1988). Janet Taylor Spence In N. A. O'Connell, And N. F. Russo (eds.), Models of Achievements: Reflections of Outstanding Women in Psychology (Part 2). (p. 191-203). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Association.

• Spence, J.T. (1999). Thirty Years of Gender Research: A Personal Chronicle. V. B. Swann the Younger , Judith Langolis, L. A. Gilbert (eds.), Sexism and stereotypes in modern society: gender science Janet Taylor Spence. (p. 35-42). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Further reading: Spence, J.T., Robert Helmrech (1978). Masculinity and femininity: their psychological dimensions, correlates and antecedents. Austin: University of Texas Press.

• Spence, J.T., Robert Helmrech. (1972). Who likes competent women? Competence, correspondence of sexual roles to interests and the attitude of subjects to women as determinants of interpersonal attraction. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, part 2, p. 197-213.

• Spence, J.T., Robert Helmrech., John Paul Stapp. (1973). Questioning of personal qualities: a measure of stereotypes gender role and masculinity-femininity. ZhSAN / JSAS Catalog of selected documents in psychology, part 4, pp. 43-44.