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TWU Local 567 EAP / Member Assistance
Credit IAM EAP, LAP, Local 591
March 2021
Celebrating Women’s History Month: Women Who Changed Psychology
(excerpts from verywellmind.com)
Anna Freud
The famous psychoanalyst's daughter Anna was a well-known and influential psychologist in her own right. Anna Freud not only expanded upon her father's ideas, but she also helped develop the field of child psychotherapy and influenced other thinkers such as Erik Erikson.
Among her many accomplishments are introducing the concept of defense mechanisms and expanding interest in the field of child psychology.
:Mary Whiton Calkins
Mary Whiton Calkins studied at Harvard. She studied with some of the most eminent thinkers of the time, including William James and Hugo Munsterberg, and completed all of the requirements for a doctorate.
Calkins went on to become the first female president of the American Psychological Association. During her career, she wrote over a hundred professional papers on psychology topics, developed the paired-association technique, and became known for her work in the area of self-psychology.
Mary Ainsworth
Mary Ainsworth was an important developmental psychologist. Her work demonstrated the importance of healthy childhood attachments. In her research on mother-child attachments and interactions, Ainsworth would have a mother and a child sit in an unfamiliar room. Researchers would then observe the child's reactions to various situations including a stranger entering the room, being left alone with the stranger, and the mother's return to the room. Ainsworth's groundbreaking work had a major influence on our understanding of attachment styles and how these styles contribute to behavior later in life.
Leta Stetter Hollingworth
Leta Stetter Hollingworth was an early pioneer of psychology in the United States. She studied with Edward Thorndike and made a name for herself for her research on intelligence and gifted children.
Another of her important contributions was her research on the psychology of women. The prevailing opinion at the time was that women were both intellectually inferior to men and essentially semi-invalid during their cycle. Hollingworth challenged these assumptions, and her research demonstrated that women were as intelligent and capable as men were, no matter what time of the month it was.
Her many accomplishments are perhaps even more remarkable considering the fact that she not only faced considerable obstacles due to gender discrimination, but she also died at the age of 53. Despite a life cut short, her influence and contributions to the field of psychology were impressive.
Melanie Klein
Play therapy is a commonly used technique to help children express their feelings and experiences in a natural and helpful way. Widely used today, a psychoanalyst named Melanie Klein played a pivotal role in developing this technique. Through her work with children, she observed that children often utilize play as one of their primary means of communication.
Klein began to utilize play therapy as a way to investigate children's unconscious feelings, anxieties, and experiences. Klein suggested that analyzing a child's actions during play allowed the therapist to explore how various anxieties impact the development of the ego and the superego.
Karen Horney
Karen Horney was an influential Neo-Freudian psychologist known for her take on feminine psychology.
Her outspoken refutation of Freud's ideas helped draw greater attention to the psychology of women. Her theory of neurotic needs and her belief that people were capable of taking a personal role in their own mental health were among her many contributions to the field of psychology.
Eleanor Maccoby
Eleanor Maccoby's name is likely familiar to anyone who has ever studied developmental psychology. Her pioneering work in the psychology of sex differences played a major role in our current understanding of things such as socialization, biological influences on sex differences, and gender roles. She was the first woman to chair the psychology department at Stanford University and, by her own description, the first woman to ever deliver a lecture at Stanford wearing a pantsuit. She held a position as professor emeritus at Stanford and received numerous awards for her groundbreaking work. The Maccoby Book Award is named in her honor.
Women have made many important and groundbreaking contributions to the field of psychology, often despite facing considerable discrimination due to their sex.
Many of these pioneering women in psychology faced considerable discrimination, obstacles, and difficulties. Many were not allowed to study with men, were denied degrees they had rightfully earned, or found it difficult to se- cure academic positions that would allow them to research and publish. Despite these obstacles, women’s contributions to Psychology have helped many people
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Benefits and you
PRE-RETIREMENT SURVIVOR BENEFIT CHARGE
The Retirement Equity Act of 1984 mandated that pension plans provide a benefit for the surviving spouse of an employee who dies vested, but prior to retirement. This is known as the Qualified Pre-retirement Survivor Annuity (QPSA). Because this requirement adds to pension costs, employers are allowed to recover the cost by reducing the employee’s pension at retirement. The AA reduction at retirement for QPSA coverage does not fully cover the cost of providing this benefit. QPSA coverage is still heavily subsidized by American.
QPSA coverage is mandatory and automatic unless the employee and spouse sign a waiver. The benefit and how the charge is calculated are explained in detail in the Summary Plan Description. The calculation is based upon a percentage by age for the number of years coverage was in effect. There is no charge for providing the coverage past age 65, although the employee is charged for those years under age 65. Once an employee is at least age 55 with 15 years of credited service or age 62 with 10 years of credited service, the charge also stops accumulating. The charge is based only on the mandatory 50% survivor benefit. Employees who have elected a larger survivor benefit are not charged more.
Since the actual QPSA calculation is complex and can only be done accurately when a exit date has been established, for estimate purposes only we show a uniform $20 monthly reduction. We use $20 because we rarely see a QPSA reduction of $20 or more, for simplicity in preparing estimates, $20 is shown on all estimates, even for employees who never had the coverage, or will not be charged this exact amount.
At retirement those employees who never had coverage will, of course, have no reduction. For those who were covered, the reduction will be individually calculated based on their age and years of coverage.
As we discussed, normally about 300 TWU members retire each year. However with the early out, we may be asking as many as 7,000 TWU members to take a close look at their pension plan. Although the QPSA explanation has been in the Summary Plan Description, with this kind of scrutiny we are learning that we can improve how we communicate very important, but unfortunately often very technical pension information.
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