Comparative psychology's founding mother, Margaret Floy Washburn.

Abstract

A scientific discipline grows through the insights and labors of individual scientists, honed by their discussions among colleagues and the mentoring they provide to the next generation of scientists. Margaret Floy Washburn, president of the American Psychological Association in 1921, the founding year of the Journal of Comparative Psychology, was a large presence during the early years of comparative psychology. She was a consummate scientist in all the abovementioned dimensions: insights, labors, communicating with her peers (including, a century later, readers of her voluminous writings), and mentoring. This essay provides an overview of her professional life and, more importantly, a synopsis of her major theoretical work, Movement and Mental Imagery, published in 1916. Her theoretical insights are remarkably relevant to contemporary developments in comparative psychology and related subdisciplines in psychology. She is an admirable founding mother for the discipline. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).