{{short description|British psychologist (1914-1982)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox scientist | name = May Alison Davidson | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = May Alison Davidson | birth_date = {{birth year|1914}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death year and age|1982|1914}} | death_place = | ethnicity = | fields = Psychology, clinical psychology | workplaces = | alma_mater = University of Cape Town }} '''May Alison Davidson''' (1914–1982) was a psychologist originally from South Africa who moved to Britain and had a major influence on the development of the profession in that country.

==Career== Davidson was born in South Africa where she graduated from the University of Cape Town. She moved to Britain in 1938 to take up a fellowship at University College London. She was attached to the Operational Research Unit of the Admiralty during the war. Afterwards she began working as an educational psychologist for the City of Oxford but then shifted her focus to clinical psychology. She remained in Oxford until her retirement in 1980.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Blackman |first1=Derek |title=Obituary - Miss May Davidson |journal=Bulletin of the British Psychological Society |date=1982 |volume=35 |page=175}}</ref>

She was very involved in government discussions about the role of clinical psychologists and was actively involved in the British Psychological Society becoming its president in 1976. In her presidential address she discussed the need for scientific and applied psychologists to work together.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Davidson |first1=May A. |title=The scientific/applied debate in psychology: a contribution |journal=Bulletin of the British Psychological Society |date=1977 |volume=30 |pages=273–278}}</ref>

==Honours== * 1976 - 1977 - President, British Psychological Society

== References == {{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, May Alison}} Category:Presidents of the British Psychological Society Category:20th-century British psychologists Category:British women psychologists Category:University of Cape Town alumni Category:South African emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:1914 births Category:1982 deaths

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