Women in Psychology

Women in Psychology Paper

In this assignment I had to choose a woman from the 1850s – 1950s that was important during that time. I will discuss the significant contribution to the field of psychology, background, theoretical perspective, and the contribution of psychology. The person I choose to discuss in this paper that I thought was a significant individual of this field was Anna Freud.

Anna Freud was born December 3, 1895 in Vienna. She was the sixth and the last child of Sigmund and Martha Freud. Anna appeared to have had an unhappy childhood, which she never made a close or pleasurable relationship with her mother. Anna had problems getting alone with her brothers and sisters especially her sister Sophie. Sophie was more attractive and represented a threat to Anna because she had beauty and brains. She really didn’t get alone with them because she believed that she was to boring and not part of the family. Although Anna wasn’t close to her mother she was very close with her father (Wikipedia, 2007).

As a child Anna had difficulties growing up because she never got alone with her mother. She was also a troubled girl who complained to her father in letter about her thoughts and feelings she was having. During that time she may have suffered from depression, which caused her eating disorder. The reason she may have suffered from the depression is that, she was thinking how her mother did not pay her any attention, but focused on her other children. As she was going through the stage of depression her relationship with her father was different from the rest of the children. Anna conflict with her mother and siblings caused her to have a self-image of problems and she became her father’s favorite child (wikipedia, 2007).

In 1901 she started school at a private elementary, but learned just a little while she was there. As a student the other students thought she, was bored because she did not talk a lot and earned the nickname “black...