John Bascom Wolfe (July 8, 1904 – January 5, 1988) was an American
social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives fro ...
and
behavioural psychologist
Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understand the behavior of humans and other animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex elicited by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individ ...
best known for his study on the use of a
token economy
A token economy is a system of contingency management based on the systematic reinforcement of target behavior. The reinforcers are symbols or tokens that can be exchanged for other reinforcers. A token economy is based on the principles of o ...
on
chimpanzee
The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...
s.
Born: Dryden, Virginia on July 8, 1904.
Married Lillian Schuck (Yale Ph.D. and board certified clinical psychologist, August 31, 1933).
Children: Ann Lee Wolfe Little and Lyn Janette Wolfe Wickelgren.
Education:
A.M. in Mathematics, Emory and Henry College 1925;
A.M., University of Virginia, 1929;
Ph.D. in Psychology, University of Illinois, 1932.
Jobs/Positions:
National Research Council Fellow at the Yale University Yerkes Primate Lab, 1932–1936.
Faculty member in Mathematics and Coach of Football, Basketball,
and Baseball at Union College, Barbourville, KY 1926–1929.
Professor of Psychology and Chair, University of Mississippi, 1936–1969. While Chair, he instituted the Ph.D. program in experimental psychology and, with his wife, Lillian Wolfe, as the primary clinician on the faculty the APA certified clinical Ph.D. Program.
President of the Southern Society of Psychology and Philosophy, 1952.
Founder and Temporary President (during the founding) of the Southeastern Psychological Association 1954–1955.
President of the Southeastern Psychological Association, 1955–1956.
Member of
Sigma Xi
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is an international non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a faculty member and graduate students in 1886 and is one of the oldest ...
.
Works
* ''The Effect of Delayed Reward upon Learning in the White Rat'' (Baltimore, 1934)
* ''Some Experimental Tests of 'Reasoning' in White Rats'' (with S.D.S. Spragg; n.p., 1934)
* ''Effectiveness of Token-rewards for Chimpanzees'' (Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1936)
* ''An Exploratory Study of Food-storing in Rats'' (Baltimore, 1939)
* ''The Impact and Potential Change in Chimpanzee Condition-Based Reasoning'' (University of Florida Press, 1940)
References
1904 births
1988 deaths
20th-century American psychologists
Emory and Henry Wasps football players
Union (Kentucky) Bulldogs football coaches
People from Lee County, Virginia
Coaches of American football from Virginia
Players of American football from Virginia
{{US-psychologist-stub