Schlosberg, Harold

Harold Schlosberg (1904-1964), professor of psychology, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 3, 1904. He came to Brown in 1928 as an instructor of psychology. He had graduated in 1925 from Princeton, where he earned his master of arts degree in 1926 and his Ph.D. in 1928 and had been a University Fellow and a Proctor Fellow. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1930, associate professor in 1937, and professor in 1947. In 1954 Schlosberg was appointed chairman of the department and in 1960 he was named Edgar J. Marston Professor. He was responsible for the planning and supervision of construction of the Walter S. Hunter Laboratory of Psychology, built in 1958, which finally replaced the old frame houses and the basements where the department had been poorly housed for years. The department grew under his administration, as new programs in experimental child psychology and primate behavior were added. Schlosberg was known for his pioneer work on the conditioned reflex in man and animals, the subject of his doctoral dissertation, one of the first such studies in this country. His broadened interests included investigation of such phenomena as activity and behavior, perception, and emotion, and he liked to refer to himself as a “generalist.” He was co-author with R. S. Woodworth of a revision in 1954 of Woodworth’s well-known Experimental Psychology. He died August 5, 1964 in Providence at the age of 61. As a colleague remembered him:

“His outstanding character was of unselfish personal concern for people. He was less concerned with their faults, he looked for and brought out their strengths. He ran his department democratically and took particular pains to help young staff members in their academic and especially their research careers. He was the stout proponent of research and scholarship. Among the faculty, he was famous for his quizzical comments and their timing, which not infrequently would bring aimless discussion to a halt.”