Lee Meyerson
(1920-2002)
 A legend in the world of psychology, Dr. Lee Meyerson, died June 16, 2002
in Tempe, Arizona. Dr. Meyerson was a pioneer in the fields of
Rehabilitation Psychology, Behavior Modification, Lewinian Field Theory, and Educational
Filmmaking. At the time of his death Lee Meyerson was Regents Professor
Emeritus of Psychology at Arizona State University.
Dr. Meyerson was born in 1920, the son of a New Jersey dry cleaner and a
homemaker. He received his Bachelors degree in 1942 from LaFayette College,
graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his Master of Arts from the University of
California, Los Angeles, then received predoctoral fellowships from the
Harvard Psychoacoustic Laboratory and the Vassar Child Study Laboratory. During
this period he edited one of the foundational pillars of the field, "The social
psychology of physical disability" for the Journal of Social Issues (Meyerson,
1948). He completed his doctoral work in 1950 under Ernest Hilgard at
Stanford University. He followed with a post-doc at Harvard and as Fulbright
Professor of Psychology at the University of Copenhagen.
Theoretically, Dr. Meyerson's early work evolved from the Field Theory of
Kurt Lewin. Lewin's student Roger Barker was Dr. Meyerson's principal
mentor at Stanford. Later, he joined Barker at the University of Kansas. Along
with Barker, Beatrice Wright, and M.R. Golnick, Dr. Meyerson co-authored the
major pivotal monograph on physical disability, Adjustment to Physical Handicap
and Illness: A Survey of the Social Psychology of Physique and Disability for
the Social Science Research Council in 1953. Later Meyerson's chapters on
Somatopsychology and the psychology of impaired hearing in Cruickshank (1955) and
his work in Meyerson (1956, 1957) defined the emerging field of the psychology
of human body type and function.
He moved to the University of Houston and then to his final academic
home, the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University. At Arizona State
he collaborated with Jack Michael (Kerr, Meyerson, and Michael, 1965;
Meyerson, Kerr, and Michael, 1967) in some of the early applications of principles of
the experimental analysis of behavior to humans. Lee Meyerson was an early
pioneer in the rapidly growing field of behavior modification. Using Lewinian
lifespace diagrams to define a disabled person's world, he then applied
behavior modification principles to effect positive change within the lifespace. It
was a brilliant combination of two distinct psychologies. Throughout the
years, Meyerson's work still stands as one of the best techniques to analyze
disability, using the context of a person's life space and environment to pinpoint
practical, concrete therapeutic interventions. It also stands as one of the
only contemporary areas of psychology where Lewin's Field Theory continues to
find practical applications.
Lee Meyerson met his long-time colleague, and later wife, Nancy J. Kerr,
at the University of Houston, and she followed him to Arizona State
University. Dr. Kerr, a Professor of Educational Psychology, passed away the previous
fall (Witt & Morris, American Psychologist, 2002). For the last 42 years they
were nearly inseparable professionally, theoretically, and personally. Their
collaborations tested and extended Meyerson's early theoretical contributions
in a variety of therapeutic settings. Their early interventions with
self-destructive, autistic children paralleled in time Ivar Lovaas' work. It
culminated in a landmark article published surprisingly as an original manuscript in
Reader's Digest, (Frank, 1968). Literally millions of copies were distributed
around the globe, making it one of the most widely reported psychological
studies in the world. It brought Meyerson and Kerr's work to both the
professional and lay communities at the same time.
Meyerson and Kerr applied their Lewinian and behavioral principles to
children with mental disabilities and physical disabilities like cerebral palsy,
polio, muscular dystrophy and stuttering. Near the end of their careers they
developed a behavioral theory of child development based upon auditory and
visual discriminations (Kerr, Meyerson, ∧ Flora, 1977) that had intriguing
parallels to Piaget's levels of development. It is hoped their later students can
pilot their last works into publications, for much of the work stands
unpublished. Meyerson and Kerr were also at the forefront of the movement to make all
public buildings accessible to people with disabilities.
Dr. Meyerson was part of the famous "Ft. Skinner in the Desert" period
at Arizona State, a time of great political and academic turmoil. His attempts
to establish a behavioral training program in rehabilitation were never
achieved, and, as a result of personal discrimination against him as a deaf person,
Dr. Meyerson filed an employment discrimination suit against Arizona State
University. The case eventually made its way to the United States Supreme
Court, where Dr. Meyerson was victorious. Later he was elected to the prestigious
position of Regents Professor of Psychology. He was a Fellow of several
divisions of the American Psychological Association, a pioneer founding member of
Division 22 (Rehabilitation Psychology), and for many years editor of the
journal Rehabilitation Psychology.
Dr. Meyerson was an avid filmmaker who loved motion picture production
and incorporated it into his research (Brechner, et al, 1974). He produced,
directed, shot, and edited Reinforcement and Rewards in Learning, probably the
single most influential early educational film on behavior modification. Later,
in collaboration with Donald Mower, in Arizona State University's Speech
Department, he produced and directed The Behavioral Control of Dysfluency. It
illustrated, on film, a very effective set of behavioral techniques to, in some
cases, completely eliminate stuttering.
He was a genuine scholar who, despite his efforts to break down the
academic barriers between faculty and students, commanded great respect from his
students. He was always known as "Dr. Meyerson", in spite of his desire that
you call him "Lee." He and Nancy Kerr (likewise always called "Dr. Kerr")
were famous for rescuing "drowning students." They saved many disenfranchised,
foundering students, using their constant application of positive
reinforcement to bring about desired changes in at-risk students. Four of his students
have been editors of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, and many others
have gone on to edit or contribute to many fields of psychology.
He used to tell his students that it did not really matter how many
publications they had on their curriculum vitae. What mattered was that they had a
few good, significant works. In the last few years of his life, he endowed a
non-profit foundation named after his parents, the David and Minnie Meyerson
Foundation, with the charge of supporting, promoting and directing projects
likely to benefit children with disabilities.He chose Nancy Kerr's daughter,
Kerrie Anne Simpson, to direct the foundation. One of his last directives
before his death, to her and the board of directors, in regard to spending the
funds of the foundation was "to do good works." That statement summarizes Lee
Meyerson's whole approach to science and education: To go beyond the mundane
and produce significant works to help people live more full and productive
lives. He was a warm, humane, humorous, and giving person who overcame incredible
personal physical challenges to make major contributions to mankind.
Kevin Cloud Brechner
Time River Laboratory
Pasadena, California |
Kerrie Anne Simpson
President
David and Minnie Meyerson Foundation
Arizona |
REFERENCES
Barker, R.G., Wright, B.A,. Meyerson, L. and Gonick, M.R. (1953) Adjustment
to Physical Handicap and Illness: A Survey of the Social Psychology of Physique
and Disability, New York: Social Science Research Council.
Brechner, K.C., Linder, D.E., Meyerson, L., and Hays, V.L. (1974) A brief
report on a device for unobtrusive visual recording. Journal of Applied
Behavior Analysis, 7, 449-500.
Frank, Grechen, (1968) Cammie. Readers Digest, 92 (549) [January], 209-225.
Kerr, N., Meyerson, L., & Flora, J. (1977) The measurement of motor, visual,
and auditory discrimination skills. Rehabilitation Psychology, 24.
Kerr, N., Meyerson, L., & Michael, J. (1965) A procedure for shaping
vocalizations in a mute child. In L.P. Ullman, & L. Krasner (Eds.). Case studies in
behavior modification. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
Meyerson, L.(Ed.) (1948) The social psychology of physical disability.
Journal of Social Issues, 4, 1-115.
Meyerson, L. (1953) The visually handicapped. Review of Educational Research,
23, 476-491.
Meyerson, L. (1955) A psychology of impaired hearing. In W. M. Cruickshank
(Ed.), Psychology of exceptional children and youth. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.:
Prentice-Hall, 120-183.
Meyerson, L. (1955) Somatopsychology of physical disability. In W. M.
Cruickshank (Ed.), Psychology of exceptional children and youth. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ.: Prentice-Hall, 1-60.
Meyerson, L. (1956) Hearing for speech in children: A verbal audiometric
test. Acta Oto-Laryngologica, Supplementum 128,
Meyerson, L. (1957) Special disabilities. In P. R. Farnsworth (Ed.), Annual
Review of Psychology, 8, Palo Alto: Annual Reviews, Inc., 437-457.
Meyerson, L. (1988). The social psychology of physical disability: 1948 and
1988. Journal of Social Issues, 44, 173-188.
Meyerson, L., Kerr, N., & Michael, J. L. (1967) Behavior modification in
rehabilitation. In S. W. Bijou & D. M. Baer (Eds.) Child development: Readings in
experimental analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice-Hall.
Witt, J.C. and Morris, R.J. (2002) Nancy Joy Kerr (1933-2001), American
Psychologist, 57 (1), 795.
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