Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 39, No. 3 , 1983

Some Memories of Clara Weiss Mayo

Walter H. Crockett University of Kansas

It is not possible to summarize in a few pages one’s memories of an old and valued friendship. I shall try, instead, to sketch my impression of Clara Mayo when 1 knew her as a graduate student and a young psychologist. That task requires a description of the context in which I met her.

When I arrived at Clark University, in 1957, Clara was already a graduate student. The intellectual tone of that department was keyed to the organismic- developmental theory of Heinz Werner, a wise and gentle man who served both as department chairman and as G. Stanley Hall Professor of Psychology. A research project directed by Tamara Dembo, in which Clara was an assistant, added a theoretically-congenial applied emphasis. Then, as now, the program at Clark was small. A dozen faculty members, at most, covered the areas of developmental, clinical, personality, social, and experimental psychology. There were seldom more than thirty graduate students on the roster; fewer than that were in residence. Students and faculty, and the families of students and faculty, came to know each other well. The atmosphere was at once congenial and intellectually exciting; challenging; occasionally disputatious; but suppor- tive, never rancorous.

Clara Mayo flourished in that setting. Werner’s organismic theory blended nicely with the field-theoretic approach to social psychology that she came to adopt. She had a deep interest in learning, a quick mind, and a balanced critical sense. She could express herself fluently and easily, yet succinctly. And she possessed a ready humor, unfailing tact, and a calmness of manner even in times of tension. All of these qualities made her a valued colleague and a genuine friend to students and faculty alike.

Because Clara’s interests were closer to traditional social psychology than to rehabilitation, and because I was to be the social psychologist at Clark, she did her doctoral work under my supervision. Her dissertation examined the impres- sions that people form from inconsistent information about others. It began a line

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of research that has twisted and branched over the years but remains unbroken to this day. Her abiding concern for social justice, and her determination to under- stand practical problems in terms of social-psychological concepts, kept her involved, as well, in applied research. That involvement was seen in her early work at the Veterans Administration hospitals in Brockton and Boston and at Boston University. She carried out one of the first and best studies of the effects of bussing for racial balance upon educational achievement. Then, as later, she perceived no conflict between laboratory experiments and field research in social psychology; she was adept at and committed to both.

Clara Mayo was a person whose basic character remained constant across time and circumstances. She adapted flexibly to new situations and her devel- opment intellectually and personally was continuous across her career. But her character and performance as a graduate student foreshadowed to an unusual degree her personality and achivements as a mature psychologist. The promise of her early work was realized in her later career, however abruptly that career has ended.

There is a terrible finality about death. It cuts through personal ties, halts achievement in mid-act, and leaves forever indeterminate what might have been. The finality is diminished and made more tolerable when aspects of a person’s life promise to affect the world after the person is gone. Clara Mayo’s profes- sional achievements will affect the course of social psychology beyond her time and ours. May her personal qualities have as continuing an influence, reverberat- ing across a chain of colleagues and students, friends and acquaintances, whose lives touched hers and were better for it.