Page 1 - Stephen Coleman Flipbook

Retired in 2011, Dr. Stephen R. Coleman is a psychology educator with 50 years of professional accomplishments. He initially became interested in psychology as a teenager, as he tried to understand the sources or causes of the personality and actions of individuals whom he knew. He subsequently attended the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, magna cum laude, in 1965. He enrolled at Indiana University (Bloomington) under a National Science Foundation pre-doctoral fellowship for one year as a graduate student in Psychology; he then transferred to the University of Iowa, receiving a Master of Arts in Psychology, and finally a Doctor of Philosophy in 1972.
Having completed his graduate-school coursework, he accepted the position of Instructor in the Department of Psychology at Cleveland State University in 1971. He was then promoted to Associate Professor in 1978 and Professor in 1989. In his graduate studies, he developed a strong interest in the history of scientific psychology, and that was to become his lifework. He became a member of the American Psychological Association and of CHEIRON: The International Society for the History of the Behavioral and Social Sciences.
Dr. Coleman’s scholarly specialty is the history of research in the Psychology of Learning, a field that compromises – among others -- two foundational categories of learning. One is called instrumental or operant conditioning, and it includes – among other types – learning what behavior brings about a satisfying (‘reinforcing’) outcome. His interest was in the historical development of B.F. Skinner’s career in that specialty. The other category is the learning of signal-outcome relationships, originally explored intensively by Ivan Pavlov in Russia. Dr. Coleman’s research explored theoretical and methodological controversies in the historical development of Pavlovian (or ‘classical’) conditioning. He has notably served as a reviewer for several journals, including American Psychologist, Behavior and Philosophy, and Psychological Reports.
Dr. Coleman was honored as Volunteer of the Year in 1988 by the Neighborhood Counseling Service for his role as secretary on its Board of Trustees. Along the way, he served as team manager in a local hockey league in the Cleveland area.
Stephen R. Coleman, PhD