Robert Louis Kahn (March 28, 1918 – January 6, 2019) was an American psychologist and

social scientist Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of socie ...

, specializing in organizational theory and survey research, having been considered a "founding father" of the modern approach to these disciplines.Biographical Note at the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
/ref> He has also been involved in developing studies on aging and his work is critically acclaimed by experts.University of Michigan Institute for Social Research Profile of Robert Kahn
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Biography

Kahn was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

on March 28, 1918. He earned his PhD at the University of Michigan and was one of the founding members of the Institute for Social Research.University of Michigan Institute for Social Research Timeline
/ref> He taught at the University of Michigan from 1948 to 1976, and directed the "Survey Research Center". In 1963 he was elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

. He was president of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in 1970. Kahn died in Burlington, Vermont on January 6, 2019.

Thought

Kahn's work on organizational theory, including the book "The Social Psychology of Organizations" (1966) that he co-authored with Daniel Katz, has been described as "a major influence on the field of organizational research, applying a framework of open system theory—the assumption that an organization continuously interacts with its environment—to research on leadership, role behavior, and organizational effectiveness". Kahn has also been appraised as a leading scholar in the study of aging, especially after the publication of "Successful Aging" (1998) that he co-authored with John Wallis Rowe. The book and other pertaining research on the topic by Kahn and collaborators have contributed to the understanding of mechanisms of successful aging.Martha R. Crowther et al., "Rowe and Kahn's Model of Successful Aging Revisited," ''The Gerontologist'' (2002) 42 (5): 613-620
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Publications

* 1966. ''The Social Psychology of Organizations'', co-authored with Daniel Katz. * 1998. ''Successful Aging'', co-authored with John Wallis Rowe.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahn, Robert L. 1918 births 2019 deaths 20th-century American psychologists American sociologists University of Michigan alumni University of Michigan faculty Fellows of the American Statistical Association American centenarians Men centenarians