Harold Kelley
Encyclopedia
Harold Kelley was an American social psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

. His major contributions have been the development of interdependence theory (with John Thibaut
John Thibaut
John Thibaut was a social psychologist, one of the last graduate students of Kurt Lewin. He spent a number of years as a professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and was the first editor of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology....

) , the early work of attribution theory, and a life-long interest in understanding close relationships processes.

Biography

Harold Kelley was born in Boise, Idaho
Boise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...

. His family moved to the rural town of Delano, California
Delano, California
Delano's climate is characteristic of the San Joaquin Valley. The weather is hot and dry during the summer and cool and damp in winter. Frequent ground fog known regionally as "tule fog" can obscure vision. Record temperatures range between 115°F and 14°F...

 when he was 10 ; while there, Kelley met and married his high school sweetheart, Dorothy. They had three children Ann, Sten & Megan, and later five grandchildren .

After graduating from high school, Kelley went on to Bakersfield Junior College, and by 1942 graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

; in 1943, Kelley continued at UC Berkeley to earn a Master's Degree in Psychology as well .

As was the case for most social psychologists of his era, Kelley was hired by the Aviation Psychology Program of the army air force during World War II, where he worked on developing selection tests and analyzing the performance of aircrew members.

By the end of the war, Kelley was advised by his aviation mentor Stuart Cook to continue his education. Shortly thereafter, he enrolled at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

 (MIT) in the Center for Group Dynamics then headed by Kurt Lewin
Kurt Lewin
Kurt Zadek Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology....

. Kelley obtained his Ph.D. from MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

 in 1948 . The center moved to the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

 in 1949 after Lewin's death, and Kelley continued to work with them for a year .

In 1950, Kelley accepted his first academic position as an assistant professor at Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...

, where he worked with Carl Hovland
Carl Hovland
Carl Iver Hovland was a psychologist working primarily at Yale University and the US Army during World War II who studied attitude change and persuasion....

 and Irving Janis
Irving Janis
Irving Lester Janis was a research psychologist at Yale University and a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley most famous for his theory of "groupthink" which described the systematic errors made by groups when taking collective decisions...

 to write his first collaborative book "Communication and Persuasion". In 1955, Kelley left Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...

 and was hired at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

. During this time, Kelley was co-author of a book titled "The Social Psychology of Groups" along with John W. Thibaut. Kelley then moved to UCLA, where he stayed for the rest of his academic career. After retiring in 1991, Kelley remained active as a member of the Emeritus at UCLA. During this term, he also chaired many dissertation committees and influenced many more students who would become leaders in the field of social psychology. With his leadership and assistance, UCLA became among the best known universities for studies in social psychology. He died of cancer in January of 2003 in his Malibu home.

Interdependence Theory

Harold Kelley’s most important collaboration was with John Thibaut
John Thibaut
John Thibaut was a social psychologist, one of the last graduate students of Kurt Lewin. He spent a number of years as a professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and was the first editor of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology....

, with whom he developed interdependence theory. Often identified as a social exchange theory
Social exchange theory
Social exchange theory is a social psychological and sociological perspective that explains social change and stability as a process of negotiated exchanges between parties. Social exchange theory posits that all human relationships are formed by the use of a subjective cost-benefit analysis and...

, interdependence theory was first broadly addressed by Thibaut & Kelley in their 1959 book "The Social Psychology of Groups", and later more comprehensively formalized in their 1978 book "Interpersonal Relations: A Theory of Interdependence. In the 1998 Handbook of Social Psychology, it is said of Kelley & Thibaut's interdependence theory, “Given the elegance and profundity of this analysis… there is good reason that its impact will be durable." Indeed, for over 50 years interdependence theory has influenced generations of scientists studying group dynamics
Group dynamics
Group dynamics refers to a system of behaviors and psychological processes that occur within a social group , or between social groups...

, social comparison, attribution
Attribution
Attribution may refer to:Something, such as a quality or characteristic, that is related to a particular possessor; an attribute.*Attribution , concept in copyright law requiring an author to be credited...

, self-presentation, self-regulation
Self-regulation
The term self-regulation can signify:*Autoregulation*Homeostasis, in systems theory*Self-control, in sociology / psychology*Self-regulated learning, in educational psychology*Self-regulation theory , a system of conscious personal health management...

, love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...

, commitment
Commitment
Commitment may refer to:*Promise, or personal commitment*Contract, a legally binding exchange of promises*Brand commitment*Involuntary commitment, the use of legal means or forms to commit a person to a mental hospital, insane asylum or psychiatric ward...

, and conflict, among other topics.

Interdependence theory is defined via patterns of interdependence in interpersonal interactions, identifying the extent to which one partner can affect and/or control the other’s outcomes in a given interaction. In interdependence theory, the focus is on the interaction, in this sense the between person relationship is just as important as the people themselves .

Interdependence theory is conceptualized through an extension of Kurt Lewin
Kurt Lewin
Kurt Zadek Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology....

’s key behavioral equation B = f(P, E), in which Behavior (B) is a function of the Person (P) and their Environment (E). Using interdependence theory I = f(S,A,B), where any given Interaction (I) is represented as a function of the two people in it (A and B) and the context of the specific interdependence situation (S).

The theory is set up with a rewards and costs model similar to those used in game theory
Game theory
Game theory is a mathematical method for analyzing calculated circumstances, such as in games, where a person’s success is based upon the choices of others...

. The balance of rewards and costs between partners within a relationship as well as how well rewards and costs compare to what would be expected in another relationship predict relationship quality . Kelley used the economic terminology to defend the idea that people are maximizers of good outcomes (high rewards, low costs) in relationships just as they are with finances or other decision-making. These reward and cost outcomes are often presented in matrices closely resembling the payoff matrices used in game theory
Game theory
Game theory is a mathematical method for analyzing calculated circumstances, such as in games, where a person’s success is based upon the choices of others...

 , which had also been adapted in psychological research previously but not as comprehensively utilized. In the matrix, person A’s possible actions in the interaction would be listed on the horizontal, and person B’s on the vertical. Each cell within the matrix then represents the reward and cost outcomes for both individuals given the particular combination of A’s and B’s actions. Kelley’s use of the matrices provided an objective visual representation of all possible outcomes in a given interaction.

Attribution Theory

Kelley liked to consider his main contribution to be his work on interdependence theory and the social psychology of personal relationships. Yet, he is also very well-known for his contributions to attribution theory. Kelley published a number of important papers on attribution theory from 1967-1973, which described the processes and manner that we attribute causality.

Having completed his PhD with Kurt Lewin
Kurt Lewin
Kurt Zadek Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology....

, Kelley was educated with a Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychology or gestaltism is a theory of mind and brain of the Berlin School; the operational principle of gestalt psychology is that the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies...

 perspective, such that the group is identified as greater than the sum of its parts. During his work on interdependence theory, he began questioning how people decide when a behavior is a function of an individual, or a function of their group (or dyad
Dyad
Dyad may refer to:*Dyad , a pair of sister chromatids occurring in prophase I of meiosis; may also be used to describe protein morphology*Dyad , Greek philosophers' principle of "twoness" or "otherness"...

) membership. Formalizing the work of Fritz Heider
Fritz Heider
Fritz Heider was an Austrian psychologist whose work was related to the Gestalt school. In 1958 he published The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, which expanded upon his creation of balance theory and marked the starting point of attribution theory...

, Kelley presented these questions of how people attribute causality at the the Nebraska Symposium on Motivation , which catalyzed the further study of attributions.

Kelley's view of the attribution theory assumes that the attributions we make are, for the most part, accurate and logical. In his covariation model
Covariation model
-Introduction:Kelley’s covariation model is an attribution theory in which people make causal inferences to explain why other people and ourselves behave in a certain way...

, which is also known as his ANOVA Model (Analysis of Variance Model), Kelley suggests that people attribute a behavior to whatever it covaries with, specifically there are three main aspects of his view. 1) Consistency: "Is the behavior consistent across most people in the given situation?" 2) Distinctiveness: "Does the behavior vary across different situations?" and 3) Consensus: "Do most people engage in this behavior in this situation?" . These important components of the attribution process are visually represented in what became known as the cube", in which Persons, Entities, and Time could each be constant or changing, to inform how we make attributions.

Kelley claimed that ordinary individuals ("naive psychologists
Folk psychology
Folk psychology is the set of assumptions, constructs, and convictions that makes up the everyday language in which people discuss human psychology...

" as they are often referred) and empirical scientists often were similarly accurate in making causal inferences. He emphasized that meso-level psychology, that is what we experience as humans on a daily level, should be the focus of most empirical psychological work, not micro-level phenomena (e.g., brain cell functioning) or macro-level phenomena (e.g., societal shifts) .

Personal Relationships

While exploring the conceptualizations and the possible “real life” applications of interdependence theory and attribution theory, Kelley began examining the interactions and perceptions of young couples in harmony and conflict, and the ways in which they negotiated and attempted to resolve conflicts . Kelley's interest in collaboration continued through his life with other colleagues as well. This work led him to elaborate both attribution and interdependence theories in the context of close relationships, resulting in the important and pioneering 1979 book, Personal Relationships. A subsequent co-authored volume titled Close Relationships, encouraged the examination of topics long ignored in social psychology such as attraction, love, commitment, power and conflict in relationships.

While later in his career was the first time Kelley began using the terms close and personal relationships, Kelley's interest in the topic stemmed back to his earliest works. In his book “The Social Psychology of Groups” (1959), nearly all of his examples are formed from dyadic interactions. . Similarly, interdependence theory was formulated with interactions functioning as a result of two individuals and their specific interdependent situation. In this way, interactions within a group could always be brought down to the level of a pair.

'Through his work on personal relationships, Kelley formalized the definition of an interpersonal relationship. First in 1979, Kelley identified the three essential elements of a personal relationship, 1) Interdependence in the consequences of specific behaviors, 2) Interaction that is responsive to one another's outcomes, and 3) Attribution of interaction events to dispositions. In this conceptualization, Kelley brought together his major research areas, interdependence, attributions, and personal relationships Kelley later went on to create an operational definition of a close relationship in his 1983 Close Relationships collaboration as, "a close relationship is one of strong, frequent and diverse interdependence that lasts over a considerable period of time".

Well after his retirement, Kelley brought together another group of leading researchers to tackle the creation of a taxonomy of prototypical social situations derived abstractly from theoretically distinct patterns of interdependence. This six-year project culminated in “An Atlas of Interpersonal Situations” .

Collaboration

Kelley's relationship with John Thibaut
John Thibaut
John Thibaut was a social psychologist, one of the last graduate students of Kurt Lewin. He spent a number of years as a professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and was the first editor of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology....

 from 1953-1986 is recognized as one of the greatest psychological collaborations of all-time.

Kelley's interest in collaboration continued throughout his lifetime with other colleagues as well, as indicated by the extensive list of co-authors on his texts, Close Relationships , and An Atlas of Interpersonal Situations .

Kelley's pursuit of collaboration led to the development of the first society for relationships researchers, the International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships (ISSPR). Kelley served as one of its earliest leaders as President from 1987-1990. This group has since evolved and is now a part of the International Association for Relationships Research (IARR).

Awards

Kelley received numerous awards and accreditation for his contributions to the field of psychology, namely the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association in 1971, the Cooley-Mead Award from the American Sociological Association in 1999, and recognition by the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, the Society for the Psychological Studies of Social Issues, the American Psychological Society, and the International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships. Kelley's numerous contributions toward Social Psychology has allowed for greater development and understanding in the field of Social Psychology

Professional Activities

  • Acting General Editor, Journal of Social Issues, 1949.
  • Member, Behavioral Sciences Study Section, National Institute of Mental Health, 1957-1960.
  • Member, Behavioral Sciences Fellowship Review Panel, Career Development Branch, National Institutes of Health, 1962-65.
  • Chairman, Program Committee for 1962 Convention of California State Psychological Association, December, 1962.
  • Member of Policy and Planning Board, American Psychological Association, 1962-64.
  • Member, Editorial Board, Annual Review of Psychology, 1963-65, 1976-78.
  • Member, Council, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, 1964-66.
  • President, Division 8 (Division of Personality and Social Psychology), American Psychological Association, 1965-1966.
  • Member, Board of Scientific Affairs, American Psychological Association, 1966-68.
  • Member, Committee on Transnational Social Psychology, Social Science Research Council, 1966-73.
  • Member, Mental Health Extramural Research Advisory Committee, National Institute of Mental Health, 1968-70.
  • President, Western Psychological Association, 1969-70.
  • Member, Board of Directors, Social Science Research Council, 1975-77.
  • National Academy of Sciences, Class Membership Committee, 1980, 1981.
  • Member, Working Group on Social Interaction, Committee on Basic Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences, National Research Council, 1985.
  • Member, Committee on Contributions of the Behavioral and Social Sciences to the Prevention of Nuclear War, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Academy of Science/National Research Council, 1985-88.
  • President, International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships, 1987-90.

Books

  • Hovland, C.I., Janis I.L., and Kelley, H.H. (1953) Communication and persuasion. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Thibaut, J.W. & Kelley, H.H. (1959) The social psychology of groups. New York: Wiley.
  • Kelley, H.H. & Thibaut, J.W. (1978) Interpersonal relations: A theory of interdependence. New York: Wiley-Interscience.
  • Kelley, H.H. (1979) Personal relationships: Their structures and processes. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum Associates.
  • Kelley, H.H., Berscheid, E., Christensen, A., Harvey, J.H., Huston, T.L., Levinger, G., McClintock, E., Peplau, L.A. & Peterson, D.R.. (1983) Close Relationships. New York: W.H. Freeman.
  • Kelley, H.H., Holmes, J.G., Kerr, N.L., Reis, H.T., Rusbult, C.E. & Van Lange, P.A.M. (2003) An Atlas of Interpersonal SItuations. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Selected Articles & Chapters

Note: This is only a partial list of Kelley's numerous publications. Publications were selected for their importance as indexed by citation counts (all included below are over 100 citations).
  • Kelley, H.H. (1950). The warm-cold variable in first impressions of persons. Journal of Personality, 18, 431-439.
  • Kelley, H.H. (1951). Communication in experimentally created hierarchies. Human Relations, 4, 39-56.
  • Kelley, H.H. & Wolkart, E.H. (1952). The resistance to change of group-anchored attitudes. American Sociological Review, 17, 453-465.
  • Kelley, H.H. (1952). Two functions of reference groups. In G.E. Swanson, T.M., Newcomb, & E.L. Hartley (Eds.), Readings in social psychology (2nd, ed., pp. 410-414). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
  • Festinger, L., Gerard, H.B., Hymovitch, B., Kelley, H.H., & Raven, B. (1952). The influence process in the presence of extreme deviates. Human Relations, 5, 327-346.
  • Kelley, H.H., & Thibaut, J.W. (1954). Experimental studies of group problem solving and process. In G. Lindzey (Ed.), Handbook of social psychology. Cambridge: Massachusetts.
  • Kelley, H.H. & Arrowood, A.J. (1960). Coalitions in the triad: Critique and experiment. Sociometry, 23, 231-244.
  • Dittes, J.E., & Kelley, H.H. (1956). Effects of different conditions of acceptance upon conformity to group norms. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 53, 6-74.
  • Kelley, H.H. (1965). Experimental studies of threats in interpersonal negotiations. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 9, 81-107.
  • Kelley, H.H. (1966). A classroom study of the dilemnas in interpersonal negotiations. In K. Archibald (Ed.), Strategic interaction and conflict (pp.49-73). Berkeley, California: University of California, Institute of International Studies.
  • Kelley, H.H. (1967). Attribution Theory in Social Psychology. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 15, 192-238.
  • Kelley, H.H. & Thibaut, J.W. (1969). In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology Vol. 4. (2nd ed., pp. 1-101). Reading, Massachusetts: Adison-Wesley.
  • Kelley, H.H. (1970). The social interaction basis of cooperators' and competitors' beliefs about others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16, 66-91.
  • Benton, A.A., & Kelley, H.H. & Liebling, B. (1972). Effects of extremity of offers and concession rate on the outcomes of bargaining. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 24, 73-84.
  • Kelley, H.H. (1973). The processes of causal attribution. American Psychologist, 28, 107-128.
  • Orvis, B.R., Cunningham, J.D., & Kelley, H.H. (1975). A closer examination of causal inference: The roles of consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 605-616.
  • Braiker, H.B. & Kelley, H.H. (1979). Conflict in the development of close relationships. In R.L. Burgess & T.L. Huston (Eds.) Social exchange in developing relationships (pp. 135-168). New York: Academic Press.
  • Kelley, H.H. & Michela, J.L. (1980). Attribution theory and research. Annual review of psychology, 31, 457-501.

Collaborators, Advisors, Colleagues

  • Ellen Berscheid
  • Andrew Christensen
  • John Harvey
  • Fritz Heider
    Fritz Heider
    Fritz Heider was an Austrian psychologist whose work was related to the Gestalt school. In 1958 he published The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, which expanded upon his creation of balance theory and marked the starting point of attribution theory...

  • John Holmes
  • Carl Hovland
    Carl Hovland
    Carl Iver Hovland was a psychologist working primarily at Yale University and the US Army during World War II who studied attitude change and persuasion....

  • Ted Huston
  • Irving Janis
    Irving Janis
    Irving Lester Janis was a research psychologist at Yale University and a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley most famous for his theory of "groupthink" which described the systematic errors made by groups when taking collective decisions...

  • Norbert Kerr
  • George Levinger
  • Kurt Lewin
    Kurt Lewin
    Kurt Zadek Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology....

  • Anne Peplau
  • Donald R. Peterson
    Donald R. Peterson
    Donald R. Peterson is professor emeritus of psychology at Rutgers University. Dr. Peterson is notable for advocating for a professional doctorate exclusive to professional psychologists, eventually leading to establishment of the Doctor of Psychology degree and programs...

  • Harry Reis
  • Caryl Rusbult
    Caryl Rusbult
    Caryl E. Rusbult was a professor and chair of the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She died from uterine cancer on January 27, 2010. Rusbult received her B.A. in Sociology from UCLA and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University...

  • John Thibaut
    John Thibaut
    John Thibaut was a social psychologist, one of the last graduate students of Kurt Lewin. He spent a number of years as a professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and was the first editor of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology....

  • Paul Van Lange

Relevant Psychological Contributions

  • Social psychology
    Social psychology
    Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...

  • Interpersonal relationship
    Interpersonal relationship
    An interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. This association may be based on limerence, love, solidarity, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships are formed in the...

  • Intimate relationship
    Intimate relationship
    An intimate relationship is a particularly close interpersonal relationship that involves physical or emotional intimacy. Physical intimacy is characterized by romantic or passionate love and attachment, or sexual activity. The term is also sometimes used euphemistically for a sexual...

  • Covariation model
    Covariation model
    -Introduction:Kelley’s covariation model is an attribution theory in which people make causal inferences to explain why other people and ourselves behave in a certain way...

  • Attribution theory
  • Implicit personality theory
    Implicit personality theory
    Implicit personality theory concerns the general expectations that we build about a person after we know something of their central traits. For example, when one believes that a happy person is also friendly, or that quiet people are shy....

  • Halo effect
    Halo effect
    The halo effect is a cognitive bias whereby one trait influences another trait or traits of that person or object. This is very common among physically attractiveness...

  • Society of Experimental Social Psychology
    Society of Experimental Social Psychology
    The Society of Experimental Social Psychology is a scientific professional organization of social psychologists. SESP has over 700 members worldwide.-History:...


External links



References

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