Magda B. Arnold

Magda Blondiau Arnold (1903–2002) was an American psychologist; the first contemporary theorist to develop appraisal theory of emotions, which moved the direction of emotion theory away from "feeling" theories (e.g. James-Lange theory) and "behaviorist" theories (e.g. Cannon-Bard theory) and toward the cognitive approaches which dominate today. She also created a new method of scoring the Thematic Apperception Test called Story Sequence Analysis.

She was a 1957 Guggenheim Fellow.

Works

• Arnold, M. B., & Gasson, J. A. (1954). The human person: An approach to an integral theory of personality. New York: The Ronald Press.
• Arnold, M. B. (1960). Emotion and personality. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Arnold, M. B. (1962). Story sequence analysis: A new method of measuring motivation and predicting achievement. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Arnold, M. B. (1984). Memory and the brain. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Sources

• Cornelius, R. R. (2006). Magda Arnold's Thomistic theory of emotion, the self-ideal, and the moral dimension of appraisal. Cognition & Emotion, 20, 976-1000.

• Fields, R. M. (2004, Spring). "A life of Science and Spirituality: Magda B. Arnold (1903-2002)" The Feminist Psychologist, pp. 11-12.

• Held, L. "Magda Arnold." In A. Rutherford (Ed.), Psychology’s Feminist Voices.

• Rodkey, E. N. (2015). "Magda Arnold and the human person: A mid-century case study on the relationship between psychology and religion." Doctoral Dissertation, York University, Toronto.

• Rodkey, E. N. (2017). “Very much in love”: The letters of Magda Arnold and Father John Gasson. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 53, 286-304.

• Shields, S. A. (1999). A conversation with Magda Arnold. The Emotion Researcher, 13(3), 3.

• Shields, S. A. (2006). Magda B. Arnold: Pioneer in research on emotion. In D. Dewsbury, L. Benjamin, & M. Wertheimer (Eds.), Portraits of pioneers in psychology (Vol. IV). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

• Shields, S. A. (2006). Magda B. Arnold's life and work in context. Cognition & Emotion, 20, 902-919.

• Shields, S. A. & Fields, R. (2003). Magda B. Arnold (1903-2002). American Psychologist, 58, 403-404.

• Shields, S. A. & Kappas, A. (2006). Magda B. Arnold’s contributions to emotions research. Cognition & Emotion, 20, 898-901.

• Stevens, G. & Gardner, S. (1982). Unacknowledged genius: Magda Blondiau Arnold (1903-). In G. Stevens and S. Gardner, The women of psychology, Vol. II: Expansion and refinement (pp. 126-129). Cambridge, MA: Schenkman Publishing Company.

External links

• Transcript of 1976 oral history interview from the Canadian Psychological Association

• Finding Aid for the Magda B. Arnold papers at the Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology at University of Akron.