Amy Tanner

Amy Tanner

Amy Eliza Tanner (March 21, 1870–1964) was an American psychologist.

Tanner was born March 21, 1870 in Owatonna, Minnesota. She earned a doctoral degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1898. Following her graduation from the University of Chicago, she worked as an associate at the university's philosophy department. Four years later, she became a professor of philosophy at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

In 1907 Tanner became an "Honorary University Fellow" at Clark University, a position she held until 1916. While at Clark University, she investigated mediumship with the psychologist G. Stanley Hall. She wrote the book Studies in Spiritism (1910) which documented the tests she and Hall had carried out in the séance sittings held with the medium Leonora Piper. Hall and Tanner had proven by tests that the "personalities" of Piper were fictitious creations and not discarnate spirits.

Publications

• Glimpses at the Mind of a Waitress. The American Journal of Sociology, 13(1), 48–55. (1907)
• The Child: His Thinking, Feeling, and Doing. Chicago: Rand McNally. (1904)
• Association of Ideas: A Preliminary Study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, Chicago. (1900)

Further reading

• Diehl, L. A. (1991). Theodate Smith and Amy Tanner: Child savers of Clark University. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 152(3), 273-287.
• Pettit, Michael. (2008). The new woman as “tied-up dog”: Amy E. Tanner's Situated Knowledges. History of Psychology, 11(3), 145–163.
• Psychological Bulletin: An Illustration of the Psychology of Belief by Amy E. Tanner, February 15, 1907.