Mary Cover Jones (1896-1987) was an American psychologist with a behavioral orientation, who made great contributions to the field of psychology. Specifically, she contributed to the field of clinical child psychology since her research and experiments focused on addressing phobias, fear reactions, and anxiety disorders in that population. She also became very interested in developmental psychology.
One of the great contributions of this psychologist was that of systematic desensitization (SD), a technique developed together with her colleague. One of her best-known experiments was the case of Peter (a child with different phobias), where she put into practice 7 different techniques to eliminate his phobia of rabbits and mice.
Who was Mary Cover Jones?
Mary Cover Jones was an American psychologist, born on September 1, 1897 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and died on July 22, 1987 in Santa Barbara (California), at the age of 90. She was a pioneer of behavior therapy, even dubbed “the mother of behavior therapy” by South African-American psychiatrist Joseph Wolpe.
One of his most notable contributions in the field of psychology, the technique of systematic desensitization (SD), is used in a type of anxiety disorder, specific phobias, and is based on the principle of counterconditioning.
In this sense, Mary Cover Jones was the first to use counterconditioning with the aim of addressing phobias, although it was her partner, the American psychologist Joseph Wolf, who popularized it within the framework of systematic desensitization.
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University education
Mary Cover Jones graduated in psychology in 1919 from Vassar College, a private university located in Poughkeepsie, a New York town in the United States. This university was founded in 1861 and was exclusively for women.
That same year, Jones attended a weekend lecture given by John B. Watson in New York. Watson was an American psychologist, considered a key figure in the 20th century who formulated and popularized the scientific theory of behaviorism and converted this orientation into a psychological school (the behaviorist school).
In that conference Watson described the case of (a world-famous experiment of an 11-month-old baby who was given a phobia; today it is considered a deeply cruel experiment), together with Rosalie Rayner, a friend of Mary Cover Jones. And there arose in Jones the desire to begin a postgraduate degree in psychology.
He completed his postgraduate studies at Columbia University, where he graduated in 1920. That same year he began working with John B. Watson. On her personal front, that same year she also married Harold Jones, a fellow graduate student. In 1923 she was appointed associate in psychological research at the Educational Research Institute of Columbia University Teachers’ College.
Childhood phobias: study of little Peter
In the following years, Jones developed a study with little Peter, a 2 year and 10 month old boy with phobias of rabbits, rats, coats and cotton.
He treated his phobia of white rabbits with a variety of procedures (specifically, seven) to reduce his fear. The most successful technique was direct reconditioning (or direct conditioning), through which a pleasant stimulus (food) was presented simultaneously to the rabbit. Jones observed how, as the rabbit approached the boy in the presence of food, Peter became more tolerant and began to touch the rabbit without fear.
Another technique that also served Jones with little Peter, in this case with the phobia of rats, was that of social imitation: Barbara, a brave girl, grabbed the rats without problems in Peter’s presence. Through this observation, Peter managed to learn to tolerate the rat.
Professional scope and recognition
Mary Cover Jones developed most of her professional work in the field of developmental psychology. She worked for 55 years in this field, and was part of a well-known longitudinal investigation, the Oakland Growth Study (OGS).
Oakland Growth Study
He It began in 1932 and was designed with the purpose of following a group of 200 students, in fifth and sixth grade; that is, from puberty to adolescence.
Thanks to the data from the large study, Jones managed to publish more than 100 articles. Among them, some on the long-term psychological and behavioral effects of early and late physical maturation in adolescence. Other of these articles, dated 1968, analyzed the developmental antecedents of the problem of alcohol consumption.
President of the Society for the Psychology of Women
Beyond all this, Mary Cover Jones published numerous articles and became President of Division 35 of the Society for the Psychology of Women.
A pioneer and renowned woman
In 1968 he received an outstanding award from this association: The G. Stanley Hall, an award that owes its name to the founder of the APA Granville Stanley Hall (1846-1924), an American psychologist and educator.
On the other hand, Jones was a pioneer in television communication; In 1952 she produced with her husband the first educational television course in child psychology.
Systematic desensitization
As we said in the introduction, one of Mary Cover Jones’ main contributions to psychology, together with Joseph Wolpe, was the technique of systematic desensitization, based on classical conditioning.
This is a type of intervention used especially in anxiety disorders, especially phobias. It is based on a type of training in which the patient learns to manage (or rather, becomes dishabituated to) the unpleasant emotions associated with anxiety-generating experiences.
The principle of counterconditioning
It starts from the following idea: to overcome an anxiety disorder, it is necessary to face the discomfort, learn to tolerate it, instead of trying to escape from it or repress it. This is how habituation is achieved, the “de-sensitization” of the anxiety-producing or unpleasant stimulus, which implies a progressive disappearance of the negative emotional and bodily responses associated with the stimulus.
But, how to reduce anxiety? With an incompatible response. Thus, we start from the following idea: anxiety can be reduced and eliminated through an incompatible response, for example relaxation (the principle of counterconditioning).
A person cannot be relaxed and anxious at the same time. Therefore, with DS the aim is for the patient to learn to relax when faced with anxiety-inducing stimuli, and that this response can progressively be emitted automatically and without much effort.
Death and legacy
Mary Cover Jones died in Santa Barbara, California, on July 22, 1987, just shy of her 91st birthday. As Reiss (1990) quotes, minutes before she died, Ella Jones told her sister: “I’m still learning about what’s important in life.”
Mary Cover Jones’ legacy to behavior therapy, the result of much evolution, is undeniable today. Her commitment to science and knowledge of it allowed her to become one of the most important psychologists in the history of psychology.
References:
- Jones, M. C. (1974). Albert, Peter, and John B. Watson. American Psychologist, 29, 581-583.
- Lafuente, E., and others (2017). History of Psychology. Madrid: UNED.
- Reiss, B. K. (1990). A biography of Mary Cover Jones.Unpublished doctoral dissertation. The Wright Institute, Los Angeles, CA.
- Rutheford, A. (2000). Mary Cover Jones (1896-1987). The Feminist Psychologist, Newletter of the Society for the Psychology of Women, 27(3). Recovered from: