Theodore H. Blau (March 3, 1928 – January 28, 2003) was a noted
clinical,
police
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...
and
forensic psychologist
Forensic psychology is the development and application of scientific knowledge and methods to help answer legal questions arising in criminal, civil, contractual, or other judicial proceedings. Forensic psychology includes both research on various ...
who was the first clinician in independent practice to be elected 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 ...
in 1977. He was a prolific writer and wrote, among other books and articles, a well known book on
Forensic psychology
Forensic psychology is the development and application of scientific knowledge and methods to help answer legal questions arising in criminal, civil, contractual, or other judicial proceedings. Forensic psychology includes both research on various ...
.
History
Blau earned his bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. degrees from
Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...
and completed his residency at the
Veterans Administration
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and ...
hospital in
Perry Point, Maryland
Perry Point is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Cecil County, Maryland, Cecil County, Maryland, United States. Perry Point is located on the east bank of the Susquehanna River south of Perryville, Maryland, Perryville and north o ...
. He was an early adherent to
B. F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.
...
and
Kenneth B. Clark
Kenneth Bancroft Clark (July 24, 1914 – May 1, 2005) and Mamie Phipps Clark (April 18, 1917 – August 11, 1983) were American psychologists who as a married team conducted research among children and were active in the Civil Rights Movement. Th ...
. After moving to
Tampa
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
in 1955, he developed a successful private clinical practice, specializing in
child psychology
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development ...
,
cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning.
Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, which ...
, and
behavior modification
Behavior modification is an early approach that used respondent and operant conditioning to change behavior. Based on methodological behaviorism, overt behavior was modified with consequences, including positive and negative reinforcement continge ...
. Blau became prominent over the next 30 years in academic and
clinical psychology
Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...
.
He later specialized in
forensic psychology
Forensic psychology is the development and application of scientific knowledge and methods to help answer legal questions arising in criminal, civil, contractual, or other judicial proceedings. Forensic psychology includes both research on various ...
but never gave up his clinical practice and wrote technical books in the field.
The Theodore H. Blau Early Career Award for Outstanding Contribution to Professional Clinical Psychology is an annual award bestowed in his honor by the American Psychological Association, Division 12, The Society of Clinical Psychology: "The Theodore H. Blau Early Career Award for Outstanding Contribution to Professional Clinical Psychology will be given by the Division of Clinical Psychology to a Clinical Psychologist who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession of Clinical Psychology."
A key tobacco industry witness, Dr Theodore Blau, testified in both the Galbraith and the Cipollone trials according to a defence pattern that continues in 21st century trials. Specifically, to downplay the difficulty of quitting and the importance of nicotine and other ingredients, while shifting the responsibility to the smoker with the implication that the smoker's motivation to quit is the main factor.
Selected works
* Blau T.H. (1950). Report on a method of predicting success in psychotherapy. ''Journal of Clinical Psychology'', 6 (4), 403–406.
* Blau, T.H. (1969). The professional in the community views the nonprofessional helper:. In Grosser, Cl, Henry, W.E. & Kelly, J.E. (Eds.), ''Nonprofessionals in the Suman Services''. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
* Blau, T.H. (1984). Foreword in Kaslow, F. (Ed.) ''Psychotherapy with Psychotherapists''. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Footnotes
1928 births
2003 deaths
Forensic psychologists
Presidents of the American Psychological Association
20th-century American psychologists
American clinical psychologists
American psychologists
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