Mercedes Rodrigo: The First Great Spanish Psychologist

Mercedes Rodrigo Bellido was one of the first great Spanish psychologists. After decades in oblivion, his work has only recently begun to be valued. He dedicated a large part of his life to the study of personnel selection and career guidance processes. His greatest contribution was founding the first study program in psychology in South America.

Mercedes Rodrigo was born in Madrid in 1891, where she lived part of her childhood and youth. He finished his teaching studies in 1911, specializing in the education of deaf-mute and blind children. Her concern to expand her training led her to get a scholarship to study psychology in Switzerland, at the University of Geneva.

At this university she was a student of Édouard Claparède, with whom she worked for years in his experimental laboratory. Dr. Claparède did a great deal to make Geneva the center of modern European pedagogy. His main contribution was a new educational model, away from the traditional canons.

His proposal was to create an active school in which the interest of the student and an education to suit him prevail. This was an idea that interested the pedagogical elite of the time quite a lot. To create it, he used some ideas and concepts from psychology to apply them to pedagogy. Thus, he proposed that teachers learn to observe their students through pre-established questionnaires and work and investigate from what was noted.

Mercedes Rodrigo received her diploma in psychology from the University of Geneva in 1923. Together with Dr. Claparède, he revolutionized the foundations of modern pedagogy. Both were precursors of a teaching based on the observation of the student to apply the most appropriate instruction in an individualized way.

Mercedes Rodrigo and her contribution to psychology in Spain

In 1923, this psychologist returned to Spain and started a didactic project for the training of teachers on advanced pedagogical techniques. In his native country, he applied an educational manual prepared in Geneva, together with Piaget. With it, he instructed educators in techniques of observation and application of learning in the classroom. For Spain at the time, this was a great challenge in basic education.

In 1929 he began to work at the National Institute of Psychotechnics in Madrid. There he specialized in psychometric studies. Its objective was to put into practice the results obtained in the process of personnel selection and professional orientation. In 1939, shortly before the end of the civil war, he went into exile from Spain.

Colombia stage

Mercedes Rodrigo arrived in Colombia with the purpose of setting up a psychotechnics department in the universities. For this purpose, he devised some admission tests to the medical career. This was fundamental for the faculty, since the number of applications was much higher than the total number of places offered by the university.

The result of the student selection process was very well received by all public institutions. Soon, his work spread to other educational and work environments.

In 1948, with the “bogotazo”, life in the Colombian capital became very difficult. The prologue to a war and street tensions became unsustainable. In this context, a Jesuit newspaper accused Mercedes of being a communist for having visited the USSR. In addition, to this was added her status as a Spanish refugee.

Based on these accusations, a malicious interpretation was made of the selection tests that were applied to applicants to enter the university. Faced with this loss of prestige, Rodrigo and his team had to leave the country.

Stage in Puerto Rico

After her time in Colombia, Dr. Rodrigo worked at the University of Puerto Rico as a professor of education and as a consulting psychologist for a time.

Later, he decided to continue his experimental work in clinical psychology, conducting group therapy and individual therapy. However, he never gave up psychometrics.

In Puerto Rico, she became famous for having dedicated her life to teaching research and training educators. Thanks to the prestige of Dr. Rodrigo at the Puerto Rican university, many postwar Spanish students were able to improve their curricula and finish their studies in this host country.

Deserved recognition

Finally, Mercedes Rodrigo lived in Colombia for a decade. His prolific scientific work and his great dedication to the psychological training program throughout South America made an important contribution to the development of later studies and the training of Latino professionals in all fields of current psychology.

On November 20, Colombia celebrates the Day of the Psychologist. In this celebration, the creation of the first independent faculty of Psychology in the country is commemorated . The work of Dr. Rodrigo had a great importance in this fact. Therefore, she is considered an important person in this country.

María Rodrigo’s work has been forgotten for decades. Fortunately, today, women’s studies are beginning to rescue many pioneers who, like her, have helped to lay the foundation for our current scientific knowledge.