E. M. Hetherington, 1926-2023
E. M. Hetherington, 1926-2023
Mavis wasn't a special educator, but she was special and she was an educator
Eileen Mavis Hetherington, one of the most influential figures in 20th-century family psychology and child development, died 21 July 2023. Along with a small group of other eminent researchers, Mavis was among the inventors of modern family psychology; in doing so, she and her colleagues brought a clear-eyed empiricism to an area of psychology that had been dominated by anecdote and psychoanalytic theory. For her efforts, she received prestigious appointments and some of psychology’s highest accolades
Mavis earned bachelors and masters degrees from the University of British Columbia in 1947 and 1948 (English and psychology, respectively). After a period of clinical work in the British Columbia area, she matriculated in the psychology program at the University of California (Berkeley), earning a Ph.D. in 1958. She served as an assistant professor for two years (1958-1960) at Rutgers University before moving to the University of Wisconsin (Madison), where she progressed through the ranks in six years (1960-1966), serving as a full professor from1966-1970. She left Wisconsin and worked at Stanford for four years before joining the faculty at the University of Virginia in 1970; she stayed at Virginia until her retirement (officially in 1999).
Along with colleagues that included some of the most prominent young researchers in psychology at that time, Mavis began working on familial contributions to child development in the mid- and late-1960s while at Wisconsin and then, subsequently at Stanford and Virginia. Although they all worked independently, she shared interests in family interactions with John Gottman, Eleanor Maccoby, Gerald Patterson, Ross Parke, and others. Although they each brought there own foci to the area, they each emphasized rigorous empirical research. Based on her longitudinal study of families in which there was a divorce that she began in the early 1970s, she was able to provide an empirical basis for understanding influences of divorce (and remarriage) on development—including into a second generation where some children whose parents divorced had divorces of their own.
In 1975, Mavis and Parke published the text, Child Psychology: A Contemporary Viewpoint. Unlike most developmental texts of that time, they oriented the book to aspects of behavioral development (e.g., aggression) rather than to ages and stages. It changed the focus of much of child development from how many years children had lived and placed it, instead, on the nature and quality of the experiences children had during their lives.
Her many achievements led to Mavis holding the James Page Professorship of Psychology from 1980 onward through her tenure at U.Va. She edited Child Development from 1977-1984 and also served as department chair for four of those same years. She was president of Division 7 of the American Psychological Association, of the Society for Research in Child Development (two 2-year terms), and director of the National Institute on Mental Health Consortium on the Family and Psychopathology, In addition she received the American Psychological Association’s Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions, Society for Research in Adolescence Distinguished Scientist Award, and the Thomas Jefferson Award from the University of Virginia.
Mavis was born E. M. Plenderleith 27 November 2026 in Ocean Falls, British Columbia, Canada. She met and, after finishing her graduate studies, married John Hetherington; John was a distinguished legal scholar and teacher who had wide-ranging interests in science and nature. They moved together to New York (with Mavis teaching at Rutgers while John worked on Wall Street) and then to Wisconsin, where they raised a family of three sons. Together they were wonderful entertainers who assembled large groups of people with diverse interests for dinner parties, with Mavis insisting on her own extensive involvement in the food preparation. She collected fabulous Persian rugs, raised orchids, and enjoyed getting lunch. In the early 2000s, she and John moved out of their country home (fittingly, parts of it had once been a schoolhouse) and into downtown Charlottesville. After John died in 2006, Mavis moved to Richmond, VA, to be near one of her sons and his family.
Lloyd Borstelman (1992) reported a fascinating interview with Mavis from 1992; part of the delight is that the questions and answers seem to be verbatim so that those who knew Mavis can damn near hear her talking. Richard Hébert (2006) also had a post about Mavis that is chocked full of lovely remembrances.
Although she would not be considered a special educator, she actually conducted two or three studies of individuals with intellectual disabilities early in her career. She influenced many UVA special educators who studied with her. And her research about families has implications for children with disabilities.
Resources
Borstelman, L. (1992). SRCD Oral History Interview (conducted 4 December 1992). https://www.srcd.org/sites/default/files/file-attachments/hetherington_mavis_interview.pdf
Carlson, E. M. (2008). Raising the bar: Hetherington set the standard for studying the family. UVA Today, 10 March 2008. https://news.virginia.edu/content/raising-bar-hetherington-set-standard-studying-family
Hébert, R. (2006). Mavis Hetherington. Association for Psychological Science Web site. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/mavis-hetherington. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
Kelly, J. (2023). In memoriam: Noted child psychologist was known for spellbinding lectures. UVA Today, 2 August 2023. https://news.virginia.edu/content/memoriam-noted-child-psychologist-was-known-spellbinding-lectures. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
ResearchGate. Collection of references to some of Hetherinton’s publication. https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/E-Mavis-Hetherington-38145257
For a reason I can’t devine, this posting has the heading “obituary,” even though it apparently was published about 17 years before Mavis passed.