Milton Rokeach (born in Hrubieszów as Mendel Rokicz, December 27, 1918 – October 25, 1988) was a Polish-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 ...

. He taught at Michigan State University, the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant uni ...

, and the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

. A ''

Review of General Psychology ''Review of General Psychology'' is the quarterly scientific journal of the American Psychological Association Division 1: The Society for General Psychology. The journal publishes cross-disciplinary psychological articles that are conceptual, the ...

'' survey, published in 2002, ranked Rokeach as the 85th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

Early life

Born to Jewish parents in Hrubieszów,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, Rokeach emigrated to the United States with his parents at age seven. After graduating from Brooklyn College, he received his

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

degree from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, in 1947.

Contributions to psychology

Rokeach conducted a well-known experiment in which he observed the interaction of three mentally ill patients at the

Ypsilanti State Hospital The Ypsilanti State Hospital housed and treated patients for mental health disorders. The hospital complex was located at the northeast corner of Platt and Willis roads, in York Charter Township; one mile south of the boundary with Pittsfield C ...

, each of whom believed he was

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

, from 1959 to 1961. The book he wrote about the experiment, ''

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti ''The Three Christs of Ypsilanti'' (1964) is a book-length psychiatric case study by Milton Rokeach, concerning his experiment on a group of three males with paranoid schizophrenia at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The book deta ...

'', was subsequently adapted into a screenplay, a stage play, two operas and a movie. Rokeach also conducted a mid-20th–century study in the American South in which he tried to determine the basis for

racial prejudice Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

. He found racial prejudice to be inversely related to socio-economic status and thus concluded that such bias is used in an attempt to elevate one's own status.T.L. Brink. (2008) Psychology: A Student Friendly Approach. "Unit 13: Social Psychology." pp. 30

/ref> His book ''The Nature of Human Values'' (1973) and the Rokeach Value Survey (see values scales), which the book served as the test manual for, occupied the final years of his career. In it, he posited that a relatively few "terminal human values" are the internal reference points that all people use to formulate attitudes and opinions, and that by measuring the "relative ranking" of these values one could predict a wide variety of behavior, including political affiliation and religious belief. This theory led to a series of experiments in which changes in values led to measurable changes in opinion for an entire small city in the state of Washington.

Awards

In 1984, Rokeach received the

Kurt Lewin Kurt Lewin ( ; 9 September 1890 – 12 February 1947) was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology in the United States. During his professional career Lewin applied hi ...

Memorial Award 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 1988, he received the Harold Lasswell Award of the

International Society of Political Psychology The International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP) is an interdisciplinary not-for-profit organization, representing all fields of enquiry involved with the exploration of relationships between both psychological and political processes and ...

Bibliography

*
The Open and Closed Mind
' (1960) *''

'
Google Books Link
(1964) *
Beliefs, Attitudes, and Values: A Theory of Organization and Change
' (1968) *
The Nature of Human Values
' (1973) *
Understanding Human Values: Individual and Societal
(1979)'' *
The Great American Values Test: Influencing Behavior and Belief Through Television
(Ball-Rokeach, S., Rokeach, M., and Grube, J.W.; 1984)''

References

20th-century American psychologists 1918 births 1988 deaths Michigan State University faculty Washington State University faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni Social psychologists Polish emigrants to the United States American people of Polish-Jewish descent Brooklyn College alumni {{US-psychologist-stub