Background
Smith, Mahlon Brewster was born on June 26, 1919 in Syracuse, New York, United States. Son of Mahlon Ellwood and Blanche Alice (Hinman) Smith.
( A pivotal figure in social psychology and personality s...)
A pivotal figure in social psychology and personality studies for more than half a century, M. Brewster Smith was the recipient of the Gold Medal Award of the American Psychological Foundation for Lifetime Contributions by a Psychologist to the Public Interest. Smith has conducted groundbreaking work on the ways in which people’s opinions are influenced by their strategies for coping with the world, with their social relations, and with their inner conflicts. His pioneering book, Opinions and Personality, offered an in-depth treatment of how people’s political opinions reflect and are partly shaped by the ways those views contribute to the functioning of their personalities. More recently, Smith has drawn on psychological research to suggest ways to reduce the threat of nuclear war. Throughout his work, Smith has aspired to an interdisciplinary social psychology that is scientific in its respect for empirical evidence and which can be applied to the social issues of our time. For a Significant Social Psychology collects Smith's most important writings, introduced by the author and presented thematically.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0814798225/?tag=2022091-20
( In a tough opening statement, M. Brewster Smith outline...)
In a tough opening statement, M. Brewster Smith outlines his own life course and contrasts it with the agenda of social psychology in the present professional moment. "Today's journals, textbooks, and conferences represent a vigorous but narrow scientific specialty in psychology, the practitioners of which are more closely focused on agendas that are primarily and often only intelligible within the subdiscipline than was the case when I formed my identity as a psychologist." In contrast, Smith sees himself, and has long been seen by others, as a social psychologist in the tradition of Gordon Allport, Gardner and Lois Murphy, Kurt Lewin, and Muzafer Sherif. Smith's unique ability has been to contribute to the emergence of personality as a differentiated academic field and at the same time maintain strong interdisciplinary ties to a variety of fields ranging from sociology to philosophy. In recent years, such concerns have made the author a central figure in the development of Humanistic Psychology as a part of the American Psychological Association. Because of these wide ranging concerns, the major statements of Brewster Smith have appeared in diverse places. Here, brought into a unified and uniform frame of reference, one has his work on values and selfhood, humanistic psychology and the social sciences, and humanism and social issues brought together for the first time. The picture is of a major thinker who is at home in the details of psychology and in the broad areas of public interest and social policy. Brewster Smith discusses major issues in terms of the political processes involved in the public interest. These range from the issue of advocacy within social research to conceptualizing anew familiar issues within psychology. For the generalist interested in the broader meanings of social psychology to the specialist aiming to recapture the big issues with which the field was once identified, this is a must volume.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887383734/?tag=2022091-20
Smith, Mahlon Brewster was born on June 26, 1919 in Syracuse, New York, United States. Son of Mahlon Ellwood and Blanche Alice (Hinman) Smith.
Student, Reed College, Portland, Oregon, 1935-1938; Bachelor of Arts, Stanford University, 1939; A.M., Stanford University, 1940; Doctor of Philosophy, Harvard University, 1947.
Rantoul scholar, Harvard University, 1940-1941; junior analyst, Office Coordinator of Information, United States Government, 1941; Social Science Research Council fellow, Harvard University, 1946-1947; assistant professor social psychology, Harvard University (Department Social Relations), 1947-1949; professor psychology, department chairman, Vassar College, 1949-1952; staff, Social Science Research Council, 1952-1956; professor psychology, New York University, 1956-1959; professor psychology, University of California at Berkeley, 1959-1968; director Institute Human Development, University of California at Berkeley, 1965-1968; professor, department chairman psychology, University of Chicago, 1968-1970; professor psychology, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1970-1988; professor emeritus, University of California at Santa Cruz, since 1988; vice chancellor social science, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1970-1975. Fellow Center Advanced Studies Behavioral Sciences, 1964-1965. Vice president Joint Commission Mental Illness and Health, 1955-1961.
( A pivotal figure in social psychology and personality s...)
( In a tough opening statement, M. Brewster Smith outline...)
Research officer Information and Education division War Department, 1943-1946. Research associate special committee on soldier attitudes Social Science Research Council 1946. Major Army of the United States, 1942-1946.
Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Psychological Association (president 1978, Distinguished Contribution to Public Interest award 1988, Henry A. Murray award 1993). Member Society Psychological Study Social Issues (president 1959, Kurt Lewin Memorial award 1986, Presidential citation 2004), Western Psychological Association (president 1986, Lifetime Contribution award 1996), Psychologists for Social Responsibility (president 1987-1990), International Society Political Psychology (Harold Lasswell award 1993), International Association Applied Psychology (president division political psychology 1994-1998), Society Peace, Conflict and Violence (Lifetime Contribution to Peace Psychology award 1999), Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi.
Married Jean Dresden Schwartz, June 1942 (divorced 1945). Married Deborah Anderson, June, 1947. Children: Joshua H., T. Daniel, Rebecca M., J. Torquil.