Sharon Stephens Brehm (April 18, 1945 - March 30, 2018)
/ref> was an American psychologist who served as president of the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

(APA). She was a professor of psychology at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

. She held administrative roles at

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university with campuses in Binghamton, New York, Binghamton, Vestal, New York, Vestal, and Johnson City, New Yor ...

and

Ohio University Ohio University is a Public university, public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confeder ...

, before becoming chancellor of

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...

Biography

Brehm was born in

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is lo ...

and earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. She went to

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 higher le ...

for an AM in clinical psychology and then returned to Duke to earn a PhD in clinical psychology. Brehm spent 15 years at the

, where she taught psychology and directed the honors program. She served as dean of arts and sciences at the

from 1990 to 1996. She later served as provost at

and she was chancellor at

between 2001 and 2003. She served as the 2007 president of the APA. During her term, the organization created the Presidential Task Force on Integrative Healthcare for an Aging Population, APA-SRCD Task Force on Math and Science Education (with the

Society for Research in Child Development The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) is a professional society for the field of human development, focusing specifically on child development. It is a multidisciplinary, not-for-profit, professional association with a membership of ...

) and the Presidential Task Force on Institutional Review Boards and Psychological Science.

Personal

Brehm met psychologist when she went to work for him as a graduate assistant. The couple got married in 1968. Though they divorced several years later, they continued to work together and even co-authored a book. Jack Brehm constructed the theory of reactance and Sharon adapted it to the clinical psychology setting. In a 2013 interview, Brehm discussed her

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

diagnosis, the early symptoms of which had appeared in 2010. She died from complications of the disease in 2018.

Works

* ''Psychological Reactance: A Theory of Freedom and Control'' (with J. W. Brehm, 1981) * ''Intimate Relationships'' (with Rowland Miller and Daniel Perlman, multiple editions)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brehm, Sharon 1945 births 2018 deaths Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Binghamton University faculty Ohio University faculty Presidents of the American Psychological Association Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Neurological disease deaths in Indiana American women psychologists American women academics 21st-century American women People from Roanoke, Virginia American clinical psychologists