James Merrill Carlsmith (April 12, 1936 – April 19, 1984) was an American

social psychologist Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the rela ...

perhaps best known for his collaboration with

Leon Festinger Leon Festinger (8 May 1919 – 11 February 1989) was an American social psychologist who originated the theory of cognitive dissonance and social comparison theory. The rejection of the previously dominant behaviorist view of social psychology ...

and

Elliot Aronson Elliot Aronson (born January 9, 1932) is an American psychologist who has carried out experiments on the theory of cognitive dissonance, and invented the Jigsaw Classroom, a cooperative teaching technique which facilitates learning while reducing ...

in the creation and development of

cognitive dissonance theory In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information, and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. ...

. He also worked extensively with

Mark Lepper Mark R. Lepper (born December 5, 1944) is the Albert Ray Lang Professor of psychology at Stanford University, and a leading theorist in social psychology. He is particularly known for his research on attribution theory and confirmation bias, and ...

on the subject of attribution theory. With Jonathan L. Freedman and David O. Sears (his cousin) he wrote the textbook, ''Social Psychology'' (1970; subsequent editions published 1974, 1978, and 1981). Carlsmith was married to social psychologist Lyn Carlsmith (born Karolyn Gai Kuckenberg, October 7, 1932 – September 1, 2011) from 1963 until his death, and had three children: Christopher, Kimberly, and Kevin (October 17, 1967 – November 19, 2011). He graduated from Stanford University and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

References

20th-century American psychologists Social psychologists 1936 births 1984 deaths Stanford University alumni Harvard University alumni American psychologists {{US-psychologist-stub

See also

References