Jean Walker Macfarlane (1894–1989) was an American psychologist. She was born in Selma, California.[1] In 1922 she earned a doctoral degree in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley; she was the second person ever to do so, the first being Olga Bridgman in 1915.[2][3] In 1927 Macfarlane founded the University of California, Berkeley's Institute of Human Development, originally called the Institute of Child Welfare.[3]
In 1928 Macfarlane began a lifelong study of 250 individuals born that year and the next year that still continues, known as the Guidance Study, which provides information on normal personalities; previously psychological theories were mostly based on information about abnormal personalities.[1] She was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley from 1929 until 1961.[1]
In 1963 Macfarlane received the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished contributions to the Science and Profession of Clinical Psychology.[1] In 1972 she won The G. Stanley Hall Award for Distinguished Contribution to Developmental Psychology, along with Margaret Harlow and Harry Harlow.[4] It is the American Psychological Association's highest honor in developmental psychology.[3]
Macfarlane was president of the California State Psychological Association and of the Western Psychological Association, as well as a member of the board of directors of the American Psychological Association and president of its Division of Clinical Psychology.[1]
During her undergraduate career, Macfarlane became a close friend of Theodora Kroeber, and her passion for psychology influenced Kroeber's decision to major in that discipline.[5]