1. Evelyn Hooker was an American psychologist most notable for her 1956 paper "The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual" in which she administered several psychological tests to groups of self-identified male homosexuals and heterosexuals and asked experts to identify the homosexuals and rate their mental health.
Evelyn Hooker's work was of critical importance in refuting cultural heterosexism because it found that homosexuality was not developmentally inferior to heterosexuality.
Evelyn Hooker's work led the way to the eventual removal of homosexuality from the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
The Gentry family was not wealthy in the least, and Evelyn Hooker was further stigmatized by her nearly 6-foot stature.
Evelyn Hooker wanted to go to a teachers college, but her instructors saw her potential and encouraged her to go to the University of Colorado.
Evelyn Hooker wrote her thesis paper on trial-and-error learning in rats.
Evelyn Hooker invited her to write her own case history.
Evelyn Hooker studied with Knight Dunlap, who generally did not approve of women doctorates.
Evelyn Hooker lived with a Jewish family while she studied in Europe.
Evelyn Hooker learned later that the Jewish family she lived with was killed in concentration camps.
When Evelyn Hooker was ready to return to work at Whittier, she found that she could not return.
Evelyn Hooker was able to get a position as a research associate, however.
Evelyn Hooker quickly gained a reputation as a brilliant teacher and researcher.
Evelyn Hooker stayed at UCLA for 31 years, where she conducted research and taught experimental and physiological psychology until 1970 when she went into private practice.
Evelyn Hooker was teaching an introductory psychology class in 1944 when a student approached her after class.
Evelyn Hooker identified himself as Sam From; he confided in her that he was gay and so were most of his friends.
Evelyn Hooker realized Sam was one of the brightest students in the class and quickly became friends with him.
Evelyn Hooker challenged her to scientifically study "people like him".
Evelyn Hooker was intrigued by the question and further persuaded by her experience with social rejection as a child, witnessing the effects of racial and political persecution in her travels, and discrimination in her professional life.
Evelyn Hooker was against the relationship of Isherwood with the much younger Don Bachardy; they were not welcome at her house.
Sam From died in a car accident in 1956, just before Evelyn Hooker's ground-breaking research was published.
In 1961, Evelyn Hooker was invited to lecture in Europe and in 1967, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health asked her to produce a report on what the institution should do about homosexual men.
Evelyn Hooker retired from her research at UCLA in 1970 at the age of 63 and started a private practice in Santa Monica.
Evelyn Hooker died at her home in Santa Monica, California, in 1996, at the age of 89.
The man in charge of awarding the grants, John Eberhart, personally met with Evelyn Hooker and, convinced by her charm, he awarded her the grant.
Evelyn Hooker gathered two groups of men: one group would be exclusively homosexual, the other exclusively heterosexual.
Evelyn Hooker contacted the Mattachine Society to find a large portion of homosexual men.
Evelyn Hooker had greater difficulty finding heterosexual men for the study.
Evelyn Hooker gathered a sample of 30 heterosexual men and 30 homosexual men and paired them based on equivalent IQ, age, and education.
Evelyn Hooker had to use her home to conduct the interviews to protect the participants' anonymity.
Evelyn Hooker used three projective psychological tests for her study: the Thematic Apperception Test, the Make-a-Picture-Story test, and the Rorschach inkblot test.
Evelyn Hooker decided to leave the interpretation of her results to other people, to avoid any possible bias.
In 1956, Evelyn Hooker presented the results of her research in a paper at the American Psychological Association's convention in Chicago.
The NIMH was so impressed with the evidence Evelyn Hooker found they granted her the NIMH Research Career Award in 1961 to continue her work.
Evelyn Hooker's studies contributed to a change in the attitudes of the psychological community toward homosexuality and to the American Psychiatric Association's decision to remove homosexuality from its handbook of disorders in 1973.