Milton Rokeach

Early life Born to Jewish parents in Hrubieszów, Poland, Rokeach emigrated to the United States with his parents at age seven. After graduating from Brooklyn College, he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1947.

Contributions to psychology

From 1959 to 1961, Rokeach conducted a well-known experiment at the Ypsilanti State Hospital in which he observed the interaction of three mentally ill patients, each of whom believed he was Jesus Christ. The resulting publication, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, was Rokeach's most famous research in values and beliefs, and was subsequently adapted into a screenplay, a stage play, two operas and a movie.

In addition, Rokeach conducted a mid-20th–century study in the Southern United States, where he tried to determine the basis for racial prejudice. He found racial prejudice to be inversely related to socio-economic status and thus concluded that such bias is used in an attempt to elevate one's own status.

Rokeach studied long-term attitude change, which earned his ranking as the 26th most frequently cited psychologist at that time in social science abstracts. In the final years of his career, Rokeach wrote The Nature of Human Values (1973) which served as the test manual for the Rokeach Value Survey (see values scales). Rokeach also did experimental work in problem-solving, and additional factor analyses on the construction of a scale to measure dogmatism. In the book, he posited that relatively few "terminal human values" are the internal reference points that all people use to formulate attitudes and opinions. Furthermore, by measuring the "relative ranking" of the values, one could predict a wide variety of behaviors, including political affiliation and religious belief. This theory led to a series of experiments in which changes in values led to measurable changes.

Personal life Rokeach taught psychology at various universities, such as Michigan State, Western Ontario, Washington State, and Southern California. In 1969, Rokeach married sociologist Sandra Ball-Rokeach.

Awards In 1984, Rokeach received the Kurt Lewin Memorial Award of the American Psychological Association. In 1988, he received the Harold Lasswell Award of the International Society of Political Psychology.