Robert F. Bales

Robert Freed Bales (March 9, 1916 – June 16, 2004) was an American social psychologist. He specialized in small group interpersonal interaction and developed the SYMLOG (systematic multi-level observation of groups) method of group observation.

Biography Bales was born in Ellington, Missouri on March 9, 1916. In 1950, Bales published a book titled Interaction Process Analysis: A Method for the Study of Small Groups in which he described in great detail his musings of human interaction within small groups.

Bales died in San Diego, California on June 16, 2004, at the age of 88. In 2016, the group honoured the centenary of Bales' birth by publishing excerpts from a video interview which he gave in 1996.

Awards Distinguished Career Award of the American Association of Specialists in Group Work (1982) Cooley-Mead Award of the American Sociological Association (1983) Distinguished Teaching Award of the American Psychological Foundation (1984)