Elliot Aronson (edit name/settings)

Elliot Aronson
Born January 9, 1932 (1932-01-09) (age 78)

Residence United States
Nationality American
Fields Social Psychology
Institutions Harvard University
University of Minnesota
University of Texas
University of California, Santa Cruz
Alma mater Brandeis University
Wesleyan University
Stanford University
Doctoral advisor Leon Festinger
Doctoral students Merrill Carlsmith, John Darley, Anthony Greenwald, Ellen Berscheid, Darwyn Linder, David Mettee, Harold Sigall, Suzanne Yates, Alexander Gonzalez. Marti Gonzales, Jeff Stone.
Known for research on cognitive dissonance, high-impact experimentation, Jigsaw Classroom
Influences Leon Festinger, Abraham Maslow
Notable awards APS William James Award
Elliot Aronson is listed among the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th Century, best known for the invention of the Jigsaw Classroom as a method of reducing interethnic hostility and prejudice; cognitive dissonance research, and influential social psychology textbooks. He is the only person in the 120-year history of the American Psychological Association to have won all three of its major awards: for distinguished writing (1973), for distinguished teaching (1980), and for distinguished research (1999). In 2007 he received the William James Award for Distinguished Research from the Association for Psychological Science.<1>


Early life and education
Aronson grew up in extreme poverty in Revere, Massachusetts, during the Great Depression. Although his high school grades were mediocre, his S.A.T. scores were high enough to earn him a work/study scholarship at Brandeis University. He earned his Bachelor's degree from Brandeis in 1954 (where he was a protege of the humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow). He went on to earn a Master's degree from Wesleyan University in 1956 (where he worked with David McClelland), and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1959 (where his doctoral advisor and mentor was the experimental social psychologist Leon Festinger).<2>


Professional history
Aronson has taught at Harvard University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Texas, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. He also taught for several years as Visiting Distinguished Professor at Stanford University. He is the recipient of many honors: He was chosen by his peers as one of the 100 most influential psychologists of the 20th century, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he won the prestigious William James Award from the Association for Psychological Science for his lifetime achievements. He has won distinguished research awards from a variety of professional organizations, including the American Psychological Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, and others. He also won the Gordon Allport Prize for his work on reducing prejudice. In 1982 he was named "Professor of the Year" by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.


Research topics
One of Aronson's key areas of interest and research has been the theory of cognitive dissonance.<3> Aronson is credited with refining the theory, which posits that when attitudes and behaviors are inconsistent (dissonant), psychological discomfort results. This discomfort motivates the person experiencing it to either change the behavior or the attitude so that consonance is restored. Among his classic experiments, he demonstrated that people who undergo an embarrassing initiation to gain admission to a group develop more favorable evaluations of the group than people who are admitted after a mild initiation.<4>

Aronson is also famous for inventing the Jigsaw Classroom in 1971. This intervention was aimed at reducing prejudice and interracial hostility in the newly desegregated Austin, Texas, school system. Classrooms using traditional competitive learning techniques were compared to those requiring cooperative learning in ethnically integrated groups. The cooperative learning groups were called Jigsaw Groups because each student had a unique and important piece of the material to share with fellow group members; they worked cooperatively to learn the day's lesson--much like assembling the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Students in these groups learned to rely on one another to master the course material. After working together in jigsaw groups, each student then took a quiz on the material. The results showed that compared to students in traditional classrooms, Jigsaw classroom students performed better on exams and showed significantly lower levels of prejudicial attitudes and negative stereotyping. Jigsaw participants also gained self-esteem, were absent less frequently, and liked school better than students in the competitive (traditionally taught) classrooms.


Bibliography
Aronson has written more than twenty books, including the influential textbook <

See also
List of social psychologists
↑ William James Fellow Award - Elliot Aronson (Association for Psychological Science) Accessed 2009-07-19
↑ Aronson, E. (2010). Not by chance alone: My life as a social psychologist. New York: Basic Books.
↑ Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson. Aronson advanced Festinger's theory by showing that it is most powerful when the self-concept is involved; see Tavris, C., & Aronson, E. (2007), Mistakes were made (but not by ME): Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
↑ Aronson, E., & Mills, J. (1959). The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59, 177–181. See also http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12125926 NPR: Why It's Hard to Admit to Being Wrong
Aronson, E. (2002). Drifting my own way: Following my nose and my heart. In R. Sternberg (Ed.), Psychologists defying the crowd: Stories of those who battled the establishment and won. Washington, DC: APA Books.

Aronson, E. (2010). Not by chance alone: My life as a social psychologist. New York: Basic Books.

Aronson, E. (2008). The social animal (10th ed.). New York: Worth/Freeman. Aronson, E. (2000).

Aronson, E. (2000). Nobody left to hate: Teaching compassion after Columbine. New York: Henry Holt.

Aronson, E., & Aronson, R. (2005). The adventures of Ruthie and a little boy named Grandpa (a children's book). iUniverse.

Aronson, E., Ellsworth, P., Carslmith, J. M., & Gonzales, M. (1990). Methods of research in social psychology (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Aronson, E., & Patnoe, S. (1997). The jigsaw classroom: Building cooperation in the classroom (2nd ed.). New York: Longman.

Aronson, E., & Pratkanis, A. R. (1993). Social psychology: The most outstanding research (Vol. 1, 2, & 3). London: Elgar Ltd.

Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Akert, R. M. (2010). Social psychology (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Aronson, J., & Aronson, E. (Ed.). (2008). Readings about the social animal (10th ed.). New York: Worth/Freeman.

Gonzales, M., Tavris, C., & Aronson, J. (Eds.). (2010). The scientist and the humanist: A Festschrift in honor of Elliot Aronson. New York: Psychology Press.

Lindzey, G., & Aronson, E. (1968 & 1985). The handbook of social psychology (2nd & 3rd eds.). New York: Random House.

Pratkanis, A. R., & Aronson, E. (2001). Age of propaganda: The everyday use and abuse of persuasion. New York: Henry Holt.

Pines, A. & Aronson, E. (1988). Career burnout. New York: Free Press.

Stern, P. C., & Aronson, E. (1984). Energy use: The human dimension. New York: W. H. Freeman.

Tavris, C., & Aronson, E. (2007). Mistakes were made (but not by me): Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts. New York: Harcourt.


External links
Aronson's home page
top psychology award
In SPN
showv • <<|d>> • eUniversity of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California