Christine Ladd-Franklin (1847-1930) - Research Paper Example

? Christine Ladd-Franklin (1847-1930) Introduction People with exceptional traits normally come to the frontier of public concerns even in unfavorable social conditions. Despite numerous forces working against the emergence of their ideologies, their mettle would manage to achieve their remarkable mission. Christine Ladd-Franklin (1847-1930), one among them was really a versatile for her great contribution to the field of psychology, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, physics, and many more. This paper tends to explore her background, theoretical perspectives, and remarkable contributions especially to the field of psychology. Background Christine Ladd- Franklin was born on 1st December 1847 in Windsor Connecticut. She was the oldest child of her parents Eliphalet and Augusta (Niles) Ladd and was fondly called Kitty. She had a brother, Henry Ladd and a sister Jane Augusta Ladd McCordia. Christine had the opportunity to attend women’s rights lectures from her earlier ages since her mother Augusta, and her aunt Juliet Niles were ardent supporters of women’s rights movements; and these lecture classes made Christine a strong women’s rights supporter and she believed that woman must get equal standards as that of a man in every phase of social life (Furumoto, 1992, p.176). On account of her mother’s death, she was forced to move to Portsmouth where her father’s home was situated. She joined in Wesleyan Academy in order to attend the course for Harvard, which was generally attended by boys. Christine had got the freedom to continue her education at Vassar College although she faced protestations from her family at the earlier stages. During the course of her study at Vassar College, Christine was driven to move to Utica so as to overcome her financial difficulties by earning money from teaching. From Utica, she got the chance to deal with various languages, trigonometry, and botanical specimens and it increased her academic talents. Even during the course of her studies, Christine had continued her women’s right activities with all supports from her father and aunt. She returned to Vassar College to complete her studies, where she met a female astronomy professor, Maria Mitchell. Mitchell motivated Christine to increase her knowledge in mathematics and science and it influenced Christine a lot. She worked as an instructor of mathematics and science in secondary schools in Pennsylvania for nine years after she had completed her graduation course from Vassar College. She applied to Johns Hopkins University for her higher education and got admission on the strength of her earlier works even though she faced certain restrictions from the university. In 1882, Christine married Fabian Franklin who was the younger faculty of John Hopkins math department. Christine published some brilliant papers in American Journal of Mathematics and gradually her interests turned to logic subjects. Although she had completely fulfilled the conditions for the Ph. D, she did not get it until 1926. Christine became famous mainly on the ground of her theory of color vision in which she defined mathematical as well as psychological perspectives for her concept. She accompanied her husband Fabian Franklin when he took a sabbatical to Europe and it helped Christine to continue her research in Professor G. E. Muller’s laboratory without getting affected by restrictions in German universities. After completing her research studies in Muller’s laboratory, she went to Berlin where she was admitted in the Hermann von Helmholtz’s laboratory (Rossiter, 1982, p.43). Christine’s works in different laboratories with different faculties enabled her to contribute a lot in the field of psychology. She presented her theory at International Congress of Psychology held in London in 1892; it gave great fame in the world of psychology. She acted as the associate editor in Baldwin’s Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology for the period of 1901 to 1905. In 1904, Johns Hopkins permitted Christine to lecture one course per year and it was renewed to a year to year basis after five years. She lectured in Columbia University, Clark University, Harvard University, and university of Chicago in 1910’s. Christine had continued her researches and lecture classes until her death in 1930. Theoretical perspectives Christine Ladd Franklin mainly worked with vision in general and she formulated the theory of color of vision which was one of her most important theory. Through her theory, Christine tries to express her idea of correlation between color differences and mind’s perception on the three kinds of light such as white, yellow, and blue. The yellow light spectrum constitutes two different colors- red and green. Christine’s theory brought some creative concepts in the field of psychology and it was a compromise between the Young-Helmholtz and Hering theories. Her theories have been also called as a genetic theory and an evolutionary theory of color of vision. As Roeckelein (1998) opines, in Franklin’s concept, light energy produces red, green, and blue stimulating substances and it originates from a complex photosensitive molecule which is situated at the retinal nerve endings (p.287). At the presence of red and green stimulating substances, they combine together to form yellow stimulating substance. The formed compound again combines with blue and it results the formation of a white stimulating substance. She adds that red and blue or green and blue cannot combine together so that it does not disappear when a mixture of blue and red is formed. Hence, it is clear that Ladd-Franklin theory brings the idea of four primary colors (red, green, blue, and yellow). She also assumes that there exist separate mechanisms for the combination of each color. Thus, the theory of color of vision strongly complies with the principle of equipotentiality. This theory states that every part of the brain is equally important so that the remaining parts can carry on their functions smoothly in the absence of any of the part. Ladd-Franklin’s theory is purely based on the evolutionary theory and it reflects some relevant factors related with vision. The theory of color of vision deeply explains the scientific sides of vision by giving suitable examples. From the point of view of Ladd-Franklin, fovea is the highly evolved part of the eye as it is the area where visual acuity and color sensitivity are greatest, mostly in the presence of daylight. She reveals that we would lose the ability to distinguish colors when the light moves from fovea to the periphery of the retina. On the other hand, night vision is better at the periphery of the retina than in the fovea. Ladd-Franklin’s essence of the concept is that peripheral vision was more primitive as compared to foveal vision since ‘night vision and movement detection are crucial for survival’ (Hergenhahn, 2009, p.224). She also argues that color vision includes three stages such as achromatic vision, blue-yellow sensitivity, and red-green sensitivity. She opines that red-green color blindness is more frequent than blue-yellow color blindness as it is evolved later. Helmholtz’s and Hering’s theories were famous when Ladd-Franklin introduced her concept of color of vision. Ladd-Franklin’s theory does not hurt other theories in any way since her only aim was to develop the concepts of vision on the support of evolutionary terms. Even though Ladd-Franklin’s theory had got popularity in its initial stages, it was neglected as she could not prove the facts scientifically. Ladd Franklin’s contribution to psychology As we discussed above, Ladd Franklin had got the opportunity to attend lectures on the topic women’s rights from her earlier ages. These campaigns influenced her a lot and she also became an active follower of women’s rights movements in the future. The shade of feminism had largely driven her to achieve all which were restricted to a woman those days. Her concepts regarding women’s rights caused to bring some revolutionary changes in the mental perceptions of the women. Ladd Franklin’s academic writings based on women’s rights could change the psychological perspectives of the society to some extent with regard to sexual discrimination. She was a scientist with interests in wide ranges and thereby the abundant knowledge acquired in the field of mathematics, science and logical philosophy made her magnificent in the field of psychology. She could give a clear view on the psychological perspectives of color blindness with the support of various color spectrums. In the initial stages of the evolution of organ of vision, it had been believed that the phenomenon of vision is the sensation which is stimulated by the presence of white light. It was a common belief that the vision is characterized by two basic sensations of blue light (short wave length) and yellow light (long wave length). In the opinion of Ladd Franklin, color blindness is a mere illusion which is felt by some psychological abnormalities. Hence, according to Lamb & Bourriau (n.d.), Ladd Franklin’s concept of color of vision helped the science world to restructure its conventional view of vision. She suggested the view that yellow light is the combination of green and red sensations. According to her new theory, there are five sensations such as white, blue, yellow, red, and green. Ladd Franklin’s concept did not cut the existed ideologies but it opened new doors for further innovations. The main advantage of her theory is that it could fit with the all known features of vision. Novelty and utility were the two significant ingredients of her concept which were capable of bringing potential perceptional variance in the field of psychology. Ladd Franklin’s efforts for merging mathematical concepts with psychology were an excellent innovation which opened a new track in the field of psychology. On the basis of her theory of color of vision, Ladd Franklin observed how mind coordinates information from two eyes and summarizes them into a single perception. Anyhow, she could successfully elucidate the relation between colors and human mind. Conclusion Despite the societal constraints and backlashes from academic environment, Franklin remained inclined to her convictions as a promising move against women’s subjugation in the field of psychological researches. Her color of vision theory added advantages to the findings of contemporary theories and also opened up multiple arenas for further explorations in the field. Above all, her initiative was evidently an extraordinary step toward certain subjects which had been unapproachable for women in their academic pursuit until then. References Furumoto, L. (1992). Joining Separate Spheres: Christine Ladd-Franklin, woman scientist (1847-1930). American Psychologist. Hergenhahn, B. R. (2009). An Introduction to the History of Psychology, Edition-6, US: Wadsworth. Lamb, T & Bourriau, J. (n.d.). Colour: Arts & Science, The Darwin College Lectures, Cambridge University Press. Rossiter, M. W. (1982). Women scientists in America: Struggles and strategies to 1940. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Roeckelein, J. E. (1998). Dictionary of theories, laws, and concepts in psychology, Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. Read More