“THE MATILDA EFFECT” AND INSTITUTIONAL SEGREGATIONISM IN THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE: A HISTORICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The article carries out a systematic historical and psychological analysis of institutional and socio-cultural barriers faced by female researchers during the formation and evolution of psychology as an independent science (late 19th – mid-20th century). The relevance of the study stems from the need to overcome traditional androcentric bias in historiography and to restore epistemological justice regarding the theoretical achievements of female scientists. The aim of the work is a comprehensive disclosure of the mechanisms behind the “Matilda effect” in psychological science, highlighting the specifics of academic segregationism (restricted access to academic degrees, laboratories, and scientific councils), and assessing the conceptual breakthroughs made by women. By applying comparative-historical, biographical, and content-analysis methods, the study traces the trajectory of overcoming institutional limitations through the work of Mary Whiton Calkins, Margaret Floy Washburn, and Sabina Spielrein, whose contributions to memory theory, comparative psychology, and psychoanalysis were long subjected to suppression or appropriation. Special attention is paid to the experimental achievements of the second half of the 20th century, which led to the cognitive revolution in psychology: the development of the ecological approach and the «visual cliff» paradigm by Eleanor Gibson, the attenuation model of attention and feature integration theory by Anne Treisman, and the discovery of the misinformation effect and memory malleability by Elizabeth Loftus. It is proven that the inclusion of female experience led to an epistemological expansion of the subject matter of psychology, transforming concepts of perception, attention, memory, and personality development. Methodological and pedagogical recommendations for deconstructing the androcentric approach in higher education are substantiated through the implementation of a cross-cutting gender approach and the analysis of the “Matilda effect” as an educational case study in teaching the “History of Psychology” course.