Spotlights on Hispanic History in Psychology

Born: 1493 in Valencia, Spain

Died: 1540 in Habsburg, Netherlands

Contributions & Importance:

• A highly prominent figure who advocated humanistic learning in the 16th century .
• Is called the “father” of modern Psychology given that his ideas precede Bacon, Descartes, and Wundt.
• His book De anima et vita has been cited numerous times and was one of the first to make the connection between body & mind.
• Some of Descartes’s writings are heavily influenced by Vives’s work.
• One of the earliest advocates for the study of learning and memory.
• One of the first people to see the study of Psychology as a useful tool for all disciplines.

Education:

• In 1507 he began his University studies at the University of Valencia.
• In 1509 due to the persecution of non-Christians in Spain his father sends him to study at Sorbonne University in Paris during the fall season.
• In 1512 he received his Ph.D. in Philosophy and art.
• In 1522 he was offered a teaching post at the University of Alcala (in Spain), but he rejected it and went to Oxford to teach Humanities and Jurisprudence.

Born: May 1, 1852 in Navarre, Spain

Died: October 18, 1934 in Madrid, Spain

Education:

• His father taught Anatomy at the University of Saragossa, & pushed Ramon y Cajal to medicine.
• In 1877, received his doctorate degree in medicine at Madrid & taught at the University of Valencia.
• During his career he published over 100 articles in Spanish, French, English & German on the fine structure of the nervous system.
• In 1900, was appointed Director of the National Institute of Hygiene & of the Institute of Biological Research in Madrid.
• In 1906, received the Nobel Prize for Physiology & Medicine.

Contributions & Importance:

• His most noted works were on the structure of the central nervous system.
• He established the Neuron Doctrine which states that:
  • Neural cells are not a web but rather that neurons are discrete & autonomous cells that communicate with one another through special junctions.
  • The junctions through which neurons communicate are called synapses.
  • Information is transferred in one direction
  • His findings have paved the way to give rise to many fields in psychology like clinical, neurobiological, & comparative.

Born: 1877 in Sicily, Italy

Died: 1925 in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Education:

• In 1900 he graduates from medical school
• In 1904, appointed professor of Psychology and awarded the National Academy of Medicine Gold medal
• In 1908 he forms a Psychological Society in Argentina and begins teaching Experimental Psychology.
• In 1911 he publishes on Genetic Psychology and self-exiles to Europe.
• In 1913, after visiting several European Universities, he publishes Principles of Biological Psychology and his most famous work named The Mediocre Man.

Contributions & Importance:

• In 1910 he published one of the earliest recorded works in Biological Psychology.
• He was the first Psychologist to try to establish a  comprehensive psychological system in South America.
• He was a prolific writer; his works include over 450 articles and 47 books.

Born: 1917 in Santa Rosa, California

Died: October 12, 2012

Education:

• He was born a farm worker to Spanish immigrants.
• During World War II he enlisted in the US Army Air Corps where he became a pilot. He then used his G.I.Bill money to pay for college.
• Received his Bachelor’s from Santa Rosa Jr. College.
• In 1965, received his Master’s & PhD from UC Berkeley.
• At UC Berkeley, he conducted radiation & brain research, & found that rats can detect & avoid low doses of radiation.
• In 1978, awarded the Howard Crosby Warren Medal for psychological research.

Contributions & Importance:

• After the mass deaths of sheep living downwind from nuclear test sites, he & his lab find the cause to be radiation poisoning. He accompanies JFK and MLK to Vinenna to meet with the Russians, & he testifies against nuclear testing.
• His research with rats also lead him to one of his most notable contributions: The Garcia Effect: this effect has been widely studied and has been used to train wild wolves & coyotes not to prey on livestock.
• His taste aversion research changed the way of thinking about associative learning. Instead of all senses being equal, he showed that taste is highly associative for animals due to its connecting to surviving possible poisoning.

Born: 1931 in San Antonio, Texas

Died: 2001 in Black Canyon City, Texas

Contributions & Importance:

• She was the first woman of Mexican descent to obtain her PhD in Clinical Psychology in the U.S.
• She was a pioneer in implementing the rigorous theories of learning and its methods to assessing and treating children with behavior problems.
• Her efforts contributed greatly to the increasing use of experimentally validated treatment techniques for children.
• She was one of the most effective early advocates for multicultural psychology.
• In 1979 she was one of the establishers of the National Hispanic Psychological Association and later became the president of the organization.
• In that same year she received a National Research Service Award to study how APA-accredited clinical psychology programs prepared for treating multicultural populations. She found that the curricula were inadequate.
• In 2000 she was recognized for her contributions at the Latino Psychology Conference.
• In 2001 she was awarded the Contributions to Psychology Award by the Public Interest Directorate.

Education:

• In 1962 she earned her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Indiana.
• Following her postgraduate studies, she received many letters of rejection from jobs that would not hire women. Yet this propelled her to pursue a U.S. Public Health Service Fellowship.
• With the Fellowship she finalized her research on human psychophysiology at the Health Science Center of University of California at Los Angeles.
• In 1966 she received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to build a laboratory and study classical conditioning and orienting responses in children with autism.
• In the 70s she applied her efforts to ensure that minority students could receive graduate training and devoted much of her time to increasing the recruitment, retention and training of these students.
• In 1986 she became a professor at Arizona State University where her focus continued to be students and workers of color.

Born : 1951 in San Marcos, Texas

Died: Still living

Contributions & Importance:

• She was one of the first recipients of the APA’s minority fellowship.
• She served as president of the Texas Psychological Association, the 17th and 35th Divisions of the APA.
• She co-founded the APA Division 45 (the society for the psychological study of ethnic minorities)
• In 2011 she was elected as president of the APA, making her the first Latina APA president.
• She currently serves on the APA board of Directors.

Education:

• She received her Bachelor’s degree in English & Political Science with a certification to teach from Southwest Texas State University.
• In 197, she completed her doctoral studies in counseling psychology at the University of Texas in Austin. After graduating, she became one of the psychologists at UT Austin’s counseling center & directed the internship training program.
• She taught in the counseling psychology doctoral program at Colorado State University.
• Over a decade after, she decided to hold her own private practice.

Born: Chicago, Illinois

Died: Still living

Education:

• At age six, Diaz and her family moved to Puerto Rico. Here she attended primary and secondary school.
• In 1970 she received a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from the University of Puerto Rico.
• In 1973 she received her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology also from University of Puerto Rico.
• In 1979 she completed her Doctorate degree at the University of Massachusetts also in Clinical Psychology.
• Upon receiving her PhD in 1979 she started working at Yale University’s Psychiatry department.
• At Yale, she became the director of the Hispanic Clinic.
• In 1986 she became a Clinical professor at George Washington University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
• Currently she holds her own private practice and continues to teach at George Washington University.

Contributions & Importance:

• In the 1970, she developed a mental health center for the Latin community in Connecticut.
• She co-founded the Transcultural Mental Health Institute.
• With her training as a clinician & her activist characteristics, she played a key part in investigations of human rights abuse in South Africa, South America, and the Soviet Union.
• She is a pioneer in incorporating culturally competent components to mental health care.
• Her work on the interactions between culture, gender, ethnicity, & race in mental health has gained her notoriety.
• She has been named a fellow in APA divisions 12, 29, 35, 42, 45 & 46.
• She has been given the honor of APA’s Distinguished Contribution to Psychology in the public interest, the award from Association for Women in Psychology Distinguished Publication, & the American Foundation Rosalee G. Weiss Award for Contributions to Professional Psychology.

Born: 1918 in Moca, Puerto Rico

Died: 1974

Education:

• He attended Moca elementary school & Aguadilla secondary school in the island of Puerto Rico.
• He attended the University of Puerto Rico where he received a Bachelor’s degree specializing on education in 1939.
• Upon graduating he decided to move to New York & enrolled at Columbia University. In 1940 he received a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology from this institution.
• That same year he was hired as a docent in the College of Pedagogy of University of Puerto Rico.
• After a year of working as a professor he was drafted to serve in the war by the United States Army. He served as the Director his regiment’s program of education & orientation until 1946.
•  After the war, he was hired by the Veterans Affairs Rehab Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico as an official & Director of training.
• In 1951, He returned to Columbia University & Obtained a PhD in Social Psychology.
• In 1953 he was hired at the University of Puerto Rico with full professorship.

Contributions & Importance:

• He was the first Puerto Rican to receive a PhD in Psychology in the United States.
• Founded the scholarly magazine named Pedagogia.
• In 1971 he was honored with the Outstanding Educators of America Award.
• He has more than 150 publications.
• He wrote several acclaimed books including Psicologia Educative (Educational Psychology) which has been edited and republished seven times and is used as the standard textbook in nearly all Latin American countries, the Philipines, and Spain.

Born: 1937 in Salinas, Puerto Rico

Died: 2011 in Newton, Washington

Education:

• Received Bachelor’s degree from University of Puerto Rico.
• Received Master’s degree from Radcliffe College.
• Received EdD in counseling and school psychology from Boston University.
• Directed the school Psychology program at Northeastern University.
• For 10 years she held the Dean position for graduate studies at the Bouve College Health Sciences.
• She also worked as the assistant dean of multicultural education and as a professor.

Contributions & Importance:

• She founded the first doctoral program at Massachusetts-Amherst and the second Northeastern University in Boston.
• She advocated for and promoted the importance of cultural diversity before it was considered a significant issue.
• Her writings, especially “Multicultural Counseling Competencies: Individual Organizational Development”, have had a major impact on APA policies and practices today.
• She was a fellow of APA’s Division 16, served on many committees, and chaired the Training and Education Group of the Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention and Training in Psychology.

Born: 1938 in Cuba

Died: Still living

Education:

• Her elementary education took place at a school her father founded after leaving the Navy. Here she learned to read & write & at age 7 her uncle helped her publish her poems.
• In 1969 she received a Bachelor’s of Arts degree at University of Costa Rica.
• From 1964 to 1970 she worked as an instructor of Psychology in Costa Rica.
• She returned to the United States & continued her studies. In 1974 she earned a PhD from the University of Florida.
• Moved to Montreal, Canada where she served as Interim Assistant professor at McGill University’s Department of Counselor Education until 1975.
• In 1975 she was hired at Boston University as Associate Clinical Professor in the Counseling Psychology Department. Here she remained for eleven years.
• From 1981 to 1983 she did post-doctoral work at Howard University with a fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health.
• In 1990 she became a professor at San Diego State University in the Department of Women’s Studies.
• During that time, she was also working as a professor at the California School of Professional Psychology & serving as Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Diversity issues.

Contributions & Importance:

• Her main contributions focus on the importance gaining a knowledge base in areas such as:

• Psychology of immigrant and refugee women
• Latina/o psychology
• Women and sexuality across cultures
• Qualitative research methodology
• In 1994 she was named a Fellow by the British Psychological Society.
• In 2004 the National Latino/a Psychological Association presented her with the Distinguished Psychologist Award for life-long work on the Psychology of Latinas.
• In 2005 the APA recognized her as an Elder for life-long work on Multicultural Issues in Psychology.
• In 2006 the 52nd division of APA recognized her with the Denmark-Reuder Award for Outstanding International Contributions Psychology of Women and Gender.

Born: 1906 in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Died: 1972 in Texas

Education:

• Earned his BA from University of New Mexico, task that took him 8 years, and worked at rural schools as a teacher, principal, & superintendent.
• In 1930 he earns his Bachelor’s Degree from University of New Mexico.
• Upon graduation, he received a fellowship from the General Education Board (GEB) that paid for his graduate studies
• In 1931 he earned his Master’s of Science in Education with a specialization in Educational Psychology & Spanish from University of Texas at Austin.
• In 1934 he earned his Doctorate in Education degree from UC Berkeley
• From 1931 to 1935, by way of the GEB, he worked as the director of the Division of information & Statistics of New Mexico State Department of Education.
• In 1935 he was asked to conduct field studies for the Julius Rosenwald Fund concerning rural & African American education in Mexico.
• In 1937 he was invited to become the director of National Pedagogical Institute of the Venezuelan Ministry of Education.
• In 1940 he received a tenured, full-professorship at University of Texas where he became the first professor of Latin American Studies & later served as chair of the History & Philosophy Education Department.

Contributions & Importance:

• His contributions extended far beyond the field of Psychology and Education. He was one of the first to challenge biased research on Intelligence.
• He was also one of the first to question the legitimacy of and speak out against the use of I.Q. tests.
• He has been attributed with the foundation of Chicago Psychology.
• In 1941 he became the national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). During this time, he was an incessant activist for the equality of minorities, especially minority children in public education.
• In 1984 the University of California at Berkeley recognized him, retrospectively for being the leader in laws affecting Latino children and other minorities.