Twenty-Four Stories From Psychology

John D. Hogan

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781506378237
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

A good story sets the stage for engaged learning.

Nowhere is this more important than in foundational courses, such as Introductory or History of Psychology. By weaving foundational and modern characters across a historical landscape, John Hogan's Twenty-Four Stories from Psychology captivates readers with the rich stories- the who, what, where, why and how- for many of the major theories and colorful characters who have shaped the development of Psychology as a field.

Part One Prescientific Psychology

Chapter One The Witches of Salem, Massachusetts: 1692

In early 1692, in a rural area of the Massachusetts Bay Colony known as Salem Village, two local girls began to act strangely. They suddenly developed fits and made odd noises, sometimes contorting their bodies into strange postures. At other times, they complained of being pricked by pins while they shouted out or hid under furniture. Local leaders and a physician were consulted. Ultimately an explanation was found for the girls’ strange behavior—witchcraft.

The news spread and the fear of witchcraft soon consumed several neighboring communities. In short order, villagers were flinging accusations of witchcraft back and forth at one another. Within months, scores of people were labeled witches. Local magistrates became involved and formal charges were made. Before the long episode was over, nineteen people had been hanged and one man was pressed to death; more than a hundred others had been imprisoned where they were held under appalling conditions. At least five of the accused died in prison.

The shocking facts of the case are not in dispute; the initial behavior of the children as well as the accusations and testimony at the trials have been well documented. However, the events of those painful months continue to defy satisfactory explanation and remain the subject of discussion and debate to this day.

Background and the Initial Episodes

Incidents of witchcraft had been reported in Europe and colonial North America before the events at Salem. In fact, there had been several notable “outbreaks” of witchcraft in Europe, particularly in England, France, and Germany, beginning in the 1500s. For the accused, the result of being identified as a practicing witch could be severe. The King James Version of the Old Testament Bible (Exodus 22:18) counsels: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Indeed, thousands of people were put to death as witches in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, most of them women (Demos, 2008).

Many religious people of the time believed that God was active in every aspect of their lives, guiding them on a daily basis but also punishing them for inappropriate behavior. In the same way, they considered Satan to be an active and daily source of evil. Any event for which there was no obvious explanation, from crop failure to the death of an infant, might be attributed to God or the Devil. The role of witches was to carry out the orders of Satan. Sometimes they would work through animals, known as familiars. Once witches agreed to serve the Devil, usually after signing the “Devil’s book,” they might be possessed with unusual powers, such as flying through the air or changing shape or demonstrating great physical strength. They had an endless reservoir of potential gifts. In fact, possession of these abilities in themselves might be evidence enough to identify an individual as a witch.

Although witchcraft was punishable by death in colonial North America, there had been only a few reports of such sentences being carried out prior to the Salem episodes. A few years earlier, in Boston, an elderly woman, Goody Glover, was accused of tormenting children. She confessed to being a witch during her trial and even demonstrated her methods for causing the children to suffer from fits. After determining that she was sane, the court ordered her execution, which was carried out on November 16, 1688. Some of the individuals involved in her trial were later involved in the trials in Salem. In fact, the Boston trial may have served as a kind of preparatory learning for the Salem trials. Still, the events in Salem presented a unique set of issues, one of which was its wide scope. In the end, the executions in Salem more than doubled all the colonial deaths for witchcraft up to that time.

In 1692, Salem Village was a small rural community roughly 15 miles north of Boston. It was located to the north and west of Salem Town, a more prosperous and active area. A port city, Salem Town was one of the earliest settlements in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The two communities were very different and frequently in conflict. (Today Salem Village is part of the town of Danvers; Salem Town is known simply as Salem.) The residents of the Village were mostly deeply religious Puritans. For many of them, religious beliefs dominated every aspect of their lives.

The behaviors leading to the accusations of witchcraft first emerged in mid-January 1692 with two young girls who were living in the home of the Reverend Samuel Parris. They were his daughter, Betty Parris, age nine, and his niece, Abigail Williams, age eleven. Reverend Parris was himself a controversial figure. Not everyone in the Village was pleased with his presence there. He was considered both inexperienced and judgmental, neither of which added to his popularity. Many of the locals chose not to belong to his congregation and he clearly was unhappy with them. This rift in the Village is sometimes seen as a contributing factor to the events that followed.

After the girls began exhibiting their odd behavior, Parris and his wife Elizabeth soon became convinced they were witnessing something out of the ordinary. The children were taken to a local physician, William Griggs, for an evaluation. After lengthy consideration, Griggs also concluded that their symptoms were outside the range of normal medical problems and suggested that the Devil might be the cause of their behavior. This kind of “medical” judgment was not unusual for the time. Medicine and spiritual issues were frequently conflated. Physicians who could not find a physical basis for an ailment were quick to invoke the power of Satan. Parris consulted with other ministers in the area and they came together to pray for relief for the girls and for divine guidance. Before long, however, two other girls in the Village, Elizabeth Hubbard and Ann Putnam, began exhibiting odd behavior as well. Soon after, even more instances of peculiar behavior began to erupt in the community.

Accusations and Death Sentences

When the girls were first questioned, they were silent. Eventually, however, they identified several individuals who were the sources of their affliction. Prominent among those they accused were Tituba, a slave in the Parris household, believed to be from the West Indies; Sarah Good, a woman from a very poor family; and Sarah Osborne, known for her indifference to attending religious services, a serious issue in the Salem community. Each of them was an outsider in the Village in one way or another. Following formal complaints by several of the villagers, all three women were brought in for public questioning by the local magistrates, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin.

Sarah Good was the first to be questioned. She denied any involvement with witchcraft, even under the difficult questioning of John Hathorne. (Decades later, one of Hathorne’s direct descendants would become famous as a novelist—Nathaniel Hawthorne.) It seemed clear from the outset that Hathorne considered Sarah Good to be guilty. Eventually, Hathorne brought the afflicted children before her, and the children immediately identified her as their tormentor. She again denied the charge, but this time she argued that the children’s tormentor was Sarah Osborne. When Osborne was questioned, she also denied any involvement with the Devil although she too was identified by the children as their tormentor. Even Osborne’s family had to admit that she had not been to a church meeting in more than a year. It was Tituba’s testimony, however, that proved to be the most explosive (Schiff, 2015).

Tituba, by reason of her dark skin color and background, was the most different of the accused and therefore a natural object for their accusations of witchcraft. After first denying that she was a witch, Tituba admitted that the Devil had appeared to her. Moreover, she agreed that both Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good were witches—she had seen evidence of it. She testified that a group of witches had actually met at the home of the Reverend Parris, although without his knowledge. Further, she admitted to “signing the Devil’s book” along with others who lived in the area. Following her testimony, several residents of the Village who were present at the hearing began to experience fits. Their behavior was interpreted as further evidence of the presence of witches in the community. The accused were jailed and subjected to further interrogation. Sarah Osborne, who had been bedridden before the accusations, died within two months, still in prison.

▶ Image 1.1 Martha Corey is accused of being a witch

Print Collector/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The questioning and incriminations continued. Now the accused included two upstanding members of church congregations, Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse. It was clear that even church membership and devotion did not ensure against accusations of witchcraft. As more indictments were made, those accused would sometimes make further accusations, naming others in the community. When John Proctor protested the charges against his wife, he became the object of allegations. Dorcas (Dorothy) Good, the 4-and-a-half-year-old daughter of Sarah Good, was accused of appearing before the girls and biting them in retaliation for her mother’s imprisonment. As a result, she was incarcerated for several months. Although she was eventually released from prison, her father later said that she was never able to function normally again. She spent the rest of her life dependent on others (Hill, 2002).

The number of accused grew to 40 and then to 60. The prisons were becoming overcrowded. Betty Parris, one of the young girls who made the initial accusations, was removed from the proceeding by her parents. The constant questioning had grown too much for her and she was showing signs of mental instability. The examinations had now relocated from Salem Village to Salem Town where they were conducted by Deputy Governor Danforth and a number of additional magistrates. But there was a problem with moving forward. At the time, the Massachusetts colony had been operating without an official government, and the locals did not have the authority to try cases of witchcraft. The English governor had been ousted from office in 1689 and a replacement governor had not yet been appointed. The local officials deemed it unwise to proceed further until the official authority had been restored. It was soon in coming.

Word reached the colony that Sir William Phipps had been appointed as governor under a new charter. Soon after his arrival, the new governor arranged for a special Court of Oyer and Terminer (to hear and determine), which was convened in Salem Town in June 1692. Finally, a process was in place. If, after questioning, there was enough evidence of witchcraft, the cases were brought to grand juries and eventually to trial. Sometimes the indictment and trial took place on the same day.

▶ Image 1.2 A Salem witch trial

Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Many forms of evidence were used to identify witches. Direct confession of witchcraft was one of the important pieces of evidence; the observation of superhuman feats on the part of the accused, such as flying or lifting heavy objects, was another. One of the more controversial types of evidence was referred to as spectral evidence. Usually this consisted of the victims seeing their tormentors, or perhaps just their shape or outline, often while the victim was being tormented. Another form of spectral evidence consisted of a deceased person appearing and identifying the witch as the cause of his or her death. Unusual spots or growths on the body, such as a wart, might be evidence of being in league with the Devil. Such spots were interpreted as sites for nourishing the Devil (Schiff, 2015). The signs used to identify witches—and there were many more—were common knowledge in the community.

The first person to be executed was Bridget Bishop. She was indicted and tried on June 2 and hanged on June 10, 1692. Bridget Bishop had been accused of being a witch before—she even had a local reputation as a witch. Several local people swore she had appeared to them at night in their own homes, terrifying them by her appearance. Even her own husband testified against her. Two men stated that when they took down a wall in a home in which she had lived, they found dolls with pins stuck in them. Although there was no certainty that the dolls belonged to Bridget Bishop, the use of poppets (or puppets) was well known as the kind of “black magic” that witches commonly used as a way to torment their victims (Schiff, 2015).

In a matter of weeks, five more women went to trial—Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Wildes. All five were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. Their executions took place on July 19, 1692. And still the accusations and trials continued. On August 19, 1692, five more people were hanged. On September 22, 1692, an additional eight more were hanged. All of the executions took place from early June to late September. Eighty-year-old Giles Corey, one of the accused, refused to plead at his indictment, protesting the practices of the court. He was subjected to a form of torture in which increasingly heavy stones were placed on his body in an effort to force him to make a plea. Instead, he died from the torture without ever making a plea.

It is difficult to know the great sadness that must have accompanied the deaths of so many innocent people, some of whom were mothers with young children. Not one of those executed had admitted to being a witch. Curiously, not one of those who admitted to being a witch was executed. Tituba, who was so central to initiating the long episode, also escaped execution. She and her husband, John Indian, disappear from the historical record completely soon after the trials.

The Court of Oyer and Terminer was dismissed in October 1692, and during January 1693 a new Superior Court of Judicature was established. This court acted differently. Although dozens of indictments were still being brought by the grand jury, fewer than half continued on to trial. At trial, only a few were condemned but none of those convicted were executed. In May of 1693, the governor issued a general reprieve and it is estimated that 150 or more of the accused were released from prison. (Despite their release, they still might have been required to pay jail fees before they were given their freedom.) Anyone who was convicted after the hangings of September 1692 inevitably escaped execution. It seemed the tide had finally changed. The long terrible episode was over.

Fictional Accounts

Several novels have been written based on the events at Salem, as well as several poems, but the most popular portrayal is a theatrical one. In 1953, Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible was produced on Broadway. Although it is a highly fictionalized account of the events in Salem, it used the names and attributes of many of the authentic principal players. Miller, the acclaimed playwright of Death of a Salesman, which had opened only a few years before, was understood to be writing about more than the Salem witch trials themselves. He saw in them a parallel for the accusations of communist infiltration into the U.S. government made by the House Un-American Activities Committee under the leadership of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. Even today, the phrase “witch hunt” is virtually synonymous with McCarthyism. But it may also be applied to any situation involving supposed moral outrage and unsubstantiated accusations without due process. Today The Crucible continues to be produced throughout the world and is standard reading in many high schools and colleges.

Understanding the Causes of the Epidemic

It didn’t take long for residents of the area to question what had happened. In 1696, a dozen jurors signed a statement expressing their contrition at the outcome of the trials. Soon after, several of the accusers confessed that they had acted inappropriately and begged for the forgiveness of the families involved. They blamed Satan as the source of their accusations. One of the judges, Samuel Sewall, publicly admitted his errors and asked that he be forgiven for his sins. Even the government offered an official pardon for those executed and compensation for the survivors or their families. But what had happened that caused the officials of Salem Village and Salem Town to arrive at such a conclusion in the first place?

Modern historians emphasize the importance of context and historical period in trying to explain any historical event. By those standards, the appearance of witches of Salem should be seen as attributable, at least in part, to the effects of living in a community that was isolated, deeply religious, convinced of the existence of witches, and knowledgeable about the powers and attributes of witches. Cotton Mather (1663–1728), a prominent Puritan minister, wrote extensively about witches, supported the trials, and even showed up at some of the executions. In those pre-Enlightenment days in America, science and objectivity played no role. The judicial process, which by contemporary standards showed a strong bias against the accused, was another failure in the system. One of the original judges, Nathaniel Saltonstall, excused himself from further trials, dissatisfied with the way the trials were conducted, but he was clearly in the minority.

Are all of these contextual elements, even taken together, enough to explain the events of that period? In 1976, Linnda Caporael, a graduate student at the time, proposed a different mechanism to explain the events of Salem. In an article in the prestigious journal Science, she suggested the possibility of a physiological explanation. Caporael, now a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Acknowledgements
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• About the Author
• Part One Prescientific Psychology
• Chapter One The Witches of Salem, Massachusetts: 1692
• Chapter Two Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron
• Chapter Three Phineas Gage: The Man With a Hole in His Head
• Part Two The Early Years
• Chapter Four Hypnosis and Hysteria: Mesmer, Charcot, and the “Country Bumpkins”
• Chapter Five The Mysterious Case of Anna O.
• Chapter Six Clever Hans, the Wonder Horse
• Chapter Seven Francis Galton: Explorer, Eugenicist, and Accidental Psychologist
• Chapter Eight A Man and His Dogs: The Story of Ivan Pavlov
• Chapter Nine Hermann Rorschach and His (In)Famous Test
• Chapter Ten The Casa dei Bambini: Maria Montessori and Her Method
• Chapter Eleven Sigmund Freud’s Only Visit to America
• Chapter Twelve Hugo Münsterberg: Pioneer Applied Psychologist, Torn Between Two Worlds
• Chapter Thirteen Mary Whiton Calkins: An Academic Pioneer in Search of a Doctoral Degree
• Chapter Fourteen Henry Goddard, Deborah Kallikak, and That Terrible Family of Hers
• Chapter Fifteen Little Albert: Teaching a Child to Be Afraid
• Chapter Sixteen When Geniuses Grow Up: The Terman Study of the Gifted
• Part Three Entering the Modern Era
• Chapter Seventeen The Minnesota Starvation Study
• Chapter Eighteen The Burt Affair: Fraud or Political Ideology?
• Chapter Nineteen Talking to Animals: The Story of Nim Chimpsky
• Chapter Twenty From Doll Play to the Supreme Court and Beyond: The Legacy of Kenneth B. Clark
• Chapter Twenty-One Challenging Societal Norms on Homosexuality: The Story of Evelyn Hooker
• Chapter Twenty-Two In Praise of Love: Harry Harlow and His Monkeys
• Chapter Twenty-Three The Shocking Dr. Milgram
• Chapter Twenty-Four The Murder of Kitty Genovese
• Appendix
• References
• Index