Bertram Herbert Raven (September 26, 1926 – February 26, 2020) was an American academic. He was a member of the faculty of the psychology department at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

from 1956 until his death. He is perhaps best known for his early work in collaboration with John R. P. French, with whom he developed an analysis of the five bases of social power.

Life and career

Born in

Youngstown Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, he received his BA and MA (1948, 1949) in psychology from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

and his PhD (1953) in

social psychology Social psychology is the methodical study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Although studying many of the same substantive topics as its counterpart in the field ...

from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. At UCLA, he was also director of the Survey Research Center, director of a training program in health psychology, and chair of the Department of Psychology. He served as a visiting professor and lecturer at the University of Nijmegen, Netherlands;

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

;

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

;

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

; and

University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

; as well as external examiner for the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

. His interests centered particularly on interpersonal influence and social power relationships which developed out of his original work on social power. That early work expanded to a broader reaching Power/Interaction Model of Interpersonal Influence. The model and theory has been applied to organizational power relationships,

health psychology Health psychology is the study of psychological and behavioral processes in health, illness, and healthcare. The discipline is concerned with understanding how psychological, behavioral, and cultural factors contribute to physical health and il ...

(e.g., compliance in health care), close relationships, educational settings. Historical and political analyses have applied the model to power confrontations between political figures and religion as a mechanism of social control. A Power/Interaction Inventory has been developed which will allow for cross-cultural comparisons. Such research is facilitated with an internet system which involves collaborating researchers in 14 different nations. For his contributions, Raven received such awards and recognition as

Fulbright Scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the peopl ...

, NATO Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, NIMH Fellow,

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

Awardee (for relating social psychological research and social action), and a Los Angeles City Council Citation (for developing the UCLA Upward Bound Project). Raven was married to an Englishwoman, Celia Raven, from 1961 until his death. They had two children, Michelle and Jonathan.

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raven, Bertram 1926 births 2020 deaths American social psychologists People from Youngstown, Ohio University of California, Los Angeles faculty University of Michigan alumni