The rumors started: "They're getting up!" The news provoked astonishment, delight, wonder. Students made pilgrimages to the brave student, as if he had uncovered a profound secret of survival in the New York subway. He announced that about half of those he had asked had gotten up without his needing to give a reason.
BREAKTHROUGH: Ellen Langer, April 1982
Langer demonstrated that thinking--just thinking--may help you live a longer, healthier, more productive life. She has shown us the power of mindfulness.
"The ultimate harm of mindlessness is that it may shorten one's life span. In several investigations, we created situations that allowed nursing-home residents to be more mindful, to engage in active decision making, and we gave each one a plant for which he was responsible. We found that significantly fewer of the mindful residents had died--in one study, 14% compared with 47%."
Women and Psychology: Sex, Sexism and Success
BREAKTHROUGH: William Masters and Virginia Johnson, Interview by Mary Harrington Hall, July 1969
Masters and Johnson were the first to: 1) study real sex in the laboratory; 2) reveal the physiological mechanisms of orgasm; and 3) discover that women can have more than one orgasm in a lovemaking session. They laid the foundation for modern sex therapy.
PT: Your research has exploded a number of myths that found their way into marriage manuals and gynecological textbooks.
Johnson: In an area where nothing was known, medicine had to draw on social lore. A textbook on psychosomatic gynecology published in 1957 stated that women had neither the interest in nor the capacity for orgasmic response!
Masters: When I reviewed the literature in 1954, everything said about female orgasm was written by males. Suddenly it occurred to me, "how the hell did they know?" That's one of the reasons Gini [Virginia Johnson] was such an essential part of this.
PT: According to your research, are all women multiorgasmic?
Masters: The human female is naturally orgasmic. Now this doesn't mean that all women experience multiple orgasms, but while the male generally loses the ability to ejaculate more than once after the age of 30, the female is still potentially multiorgasmic in her 70s.
PT: Men should really take this into consideration.
BREAKTHROUGH: Matina Homer, November 1969
Former president of Radcliffe College, Homer helped clarify sex roles in the modern era.
"Consider Phil and Monica, both honor students. We ask Phil to tell us a story based on this situation: After first term finals, a student named John finds himself at the top of his medical school class. Phil responds: 'John is a conscientious student and pleased with himself. He has always wanted to go into medicine... He continues working hard and eventually graduates at the top of his class.' We present Monica with the same situation, but with a female protagonist named 'Ann.' Monica writes: 'Ann starts proclaiming her surprise and joy. Her fellow classmates are so disgusted with her behavior that they jump on her and beat her. She is maimed for life.'
"Next we ask Monica and Phil to work on a series of achievement tests by themselves. Monica scores higher than Phil. We get them together, competing against one another in the same room. Phil excels, while Monica dissolves into a bundle of nerves.
"The glaring contrast between the two stories and the dramatic changes in performance in competitive situations illustrate important differences between men and women in reacting to achievement. The motive to avoid success has an all-too-important influence on the intellectual and professional lives of women in our society."
BREAKTHROUGH: Harry F. Harlow, Interview by Carol Tavris, April 1973
Through his research with monkeys, Harlow showed that love and care from a mother in the early years is critical to normal emotional and intellectual development. Some have found his interpretation of monkey behavior--and his reliance on it to inform his perspective on human behavior--to be offensive.
Harlow: We have found sex differences in monkeys. If you don't believe that God created women to be mothers and essentially nothing else, let me prove it to you. Young female and male monkeys respond differently to infants: Males become either indifferent or mildly abusive, whereas females love the infants immediately.
God created two species: man and woman. Man is the only animal capable of speaking, and woman is the only animal incapable of not speaking.
PT: Women's liberation will get you for that one.
Harlow: They did already... The sexes play differently. Males play rough, and females play soft and gentle. They sit on the sidelines saying mean, catty, nasty things about other women. Maturation brings out the capabilities that God intended.
PT: I was a tomboy as a child, and I don't like to say nasty things about other women. Does that mean I am not a female?
Harlow: You prove my point. Speaking is the one trait in which woman is superior to man. Consider what happens when a couple argues. The man tries to talk to the woman. The stupid fool, he can never win. Are you married?
PT: Do you have to be married to argue with a man?
Harlow: I have been married twice but both of my wives have been too bright to be sucked in by women's lib. My wife Peggy probably had more of a gripe because she lost her job [assistant professor in psychology] when she married me. But being a smart woman, she knew it was better to marry a man and lose a job than hold a job and not marry.
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