Gardner Edmund Lindzey (November 27, 1920 – February 4, 2008) was an American psychologist and a past 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). After completing a doctorate at

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 highe ...

, Lindzey served as a professor or administrator at several universities, edited a well-known textbook in social psychology and led a 1982

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

(NAS) panel that recommended the legalization of

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various t ...

Biography

Early life and education

Lindzey was born on November 27, 1920, in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington (Unami language, Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North ...

. He attended

Penn 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 ...

, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in psychology. In 1949, he finished a Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University.

Academic career

After teaching briefly at Harvard and spending several years at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

, Lindzey joined the faculty of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

. Psychologist and fellow faculty member Elliot Aronson described Lindzey as "the star of the round table, an entertaining storyteller and a catalyst of conversation. And he seemed to know everything about everyone's research... But he would always find a way to make each person's research relevant to the interests of the other people at the table." He chaired the psychology department at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

between 1964 and 1969. Later, the university credited him with "transforming the department from a relatively small and unassuming group to a large and internationally recognized faculty." Lindzey made contributions to

personality psychology Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that examines personality and its variation among individuals. It aims to show how people are individually different due to psychological forces. Its areas of focus include: * construction of a ...

social psychology 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 ...

, the

history of psychology Psychology is defined as "the scientific study of behavior and mental processes". Philosophical interest in the human mind and behavior dates back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Persia, Greece, China, and India. Psychology as a field of ...

and

behavioral genetics Behavioural genetics, also referred to as behaviour genetics, is a field of scientific research that uses genetic methods to investigate the nature and origins of individual differences in behaviour. While the name "behavioural genetics" c ...

. He moved into educational administration at Texas, becoming the vice president for academic affairs and remaining there until 1975. He then became the longest-serving director of the

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research lab at Stanford University that offers a residential postdoctoral fellowship program for scientists and scholars studying "the five core social and ...

(CASBS), running the center between 1975 and 1989 after completing fellowships there in 1954, 1964 and 1972. In 1982, he was a key member (immediate past chair) of the NAS committee that recommended the decriminalization of marijuana in ''An Analysis of Marijuana Policy'', a report commissioned several years earlier by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Other committee members included psychiatrist Daniel X. Freedman, former U.S. drug czar

Jerome Jaffe Jerome H. Jaffe (born July 6, 1933) is a clinical professor and was the drug Czar under the administration of President of the United States Richard Nixon. Career Many American soldiers used heroin during the Vietnam War. According to Represen ...

, sociologists Denise Kandel and

Howard S. Becker Howard Saul Becker (born 1928) is an American sociologist who teaches at Northwestern University. Becker has made contributions to the sociology of deviance, sociology of art, and sociology of music. Becker also wrote extensively on sociologic ...

, psychologist and future university and foundation president

Judith Rodin Judith Rodin (born Judith Seitz, September 9, 1944) is a philanthropist with a long history in U.S. higher education. She was the president of the Rockefeller Foundation from 2005 until 2017. From 1994 to 2004, Rodin served as the 7th permanent ...

, future

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winner in economics

Thomas Schelling Thomas Crombie Schelling (April 14, 1921 – December 13, 2016) was an American economist and professor of foreign policy, national security, nuclear strategy, and arms control at the School of Public Policy at University of Maryland, College ...

, and former CBS president Frank Stanton. The report highlighted the costs associated with the 400,000 annual marijuana-related arrests. When the report was published, NAS president

Frank Press Frank Press (December 4, 1924 – January 29, 2020) was an American geophysicist. He was an advisor to four U.S. presidents, and later served two consecutive terms as president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1981–1993). He was the au ...

included a cover letter with it that criticized the report. Press thought that the committee had overstepped its bounds with its conclusions, which he said were better left to the political process.

National Institute on Drug Abuse The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is a United States federal government research institute whose mission is to "advance science on the causes and consequences of drug use and addiction and to apply that knowledge to improve individual a ...

director William Pollin also said that it was "a terrible mistake and a public health tragedy" to advocate for societal acceptance of marijuana use.

Later life

An athlete in high school, Lindzey continued to play tennis for several years after his retirement. He was ill for the last couple of years of his life. He spent some time in hospice care, but he was able to return to work as an editor almost up to the time that he died.

Personal

Lindzey married Andrea Lewis in 1944 and they had five children. She died in 1984. In his later years, he had a companion, a psychologist named Lyn Carlsmith.

Honors

*Member,

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

(1971) *Member,

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

(1979) * NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing,

(1987) *Member, United States

(1989)

Works

*''The Handbook of Social Psychology'' *''Theories of Personality'' (1957) *''Projective Techniques and Cross-Cultural Research'' (1961)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindzey, Gardner 1920 births 2008 deaths Behavior geneticists Harvard University alumni Members of the National Academy of Medicine Presidents of the American Psychological Association Pennsylvania State University alumni University of Minnesota faculty 20th-century American psychologists Members of the American Philosophical Society