Gordon G. Gallup Jr. (; born 1941) is an American

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

in the University at Albany's

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

department, researching

biopsychology Behavioral neuroscience, also known as biological psychology, biopsychology, or psychobiology,Psychobi ...

Early life and education

Gallup received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from

Washington State University Washington State University (WSU, or colloquially Wazzu) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Pullman, Washington, United States. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest Land-grant uni ...

in 1968, after which he joined the faculty of the psychology department at

Tulane University The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...

Career

He is best known for developing the

mirror test The mirror test—sometimes called the mark test, mirror self-recognition (MSR) test, red spot technique, or rouge test—is a behavioral technique developed in 1970 by American psychologist Gordon Gallup Jr. to determine whether an animal posse ...

, also called the mirror self-recognition test, or MSR, in 1970, which gauges

self-awareness In philosophy of self, philosophy, self-awareness is the awareness and reflection of one's own personality or individuality, including traits, feelings, and behaviors. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While ...

of animals. In 1975, Gallup moved to the University at Albany. During his tenure at Tulane, Gallup also developed a research interest in

tonic immobility Apparent death is a behavior in which animals take on the appearance of being dead. It is an immobile state most often triggered by a predatory attack and can be found in a wide range of animals from insects and crustaceans to mammals, birds, r ...

, or "animal hypnosis," which he continued at the University at Albany. His later work on animal behavior focused on ethological approaches to the study of animal behavior under laboratory conditions, which he pursued with Susan Suarez in the 1980s. Since the 1990s, Gallup has researched human

evolutionary psychology Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regard to the ancestral problems they evolved ...

exclusively. Gallup's article entitled "Does Semen Have Antidepressant Properties?" attracted the attention of the media when it was published in 2002. Gallup commented, "I want to make it clear that we are not advocating that people abstain from using condoms. Clearly, an unwanted pregnancy or a sexually transmitted disease would more than offset any advantageous psychological effects of semen."

Publications

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References

External links

Faculty page
Animal cognition writers 21st-century American psychologists Living people University at Albany, SUNY faculty Washington State University alumni 1941 births Journal of Comparative Psychology editors 20th-century American psychologists {{US-psychologist-stub