James M. Dabbs, Jr.

James M. Dabbs, Jr. (1937-2004) was a Social Psychologist and Professor of Psychology at Georgia State University. [ [http://dabbs.socialpsychology.org/ James Dabbs ] ] [ [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AT&p_theme=at&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=10486D33F2B27BE7&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM Welcome to stacks.ajc.com ] ] Born in 1937 in Sumter, South Carolina, he obtained his doctorate from Yale in 1962. In 2004, he died from cancer. He was the son of James McBride Dabbs, well known author and prominent southern liberal during the age of segregation. The elder Dabbs served as president of the Southern Regional Council, chairman of the board of Penn Community Services, and was a member of the Committee of Southern Churchmen and the Southern Student Organizing Committee.

His career touched on many of the classic areas of interest to Social Psychologists. With Bibb Latané, Dabbs investigated helpfulness, finding that the number of persons on an elevator reduced the likelihood that someone would help a person who dropped coins or pencils. [Latané, B., & Dabbs, J.M. Jr. (1975). Sex, group size and helping in three cities. "Sociometry, 38", 180-194.] He also worked with Irving Janis on persuasion, showing that the good feelings that come from eating snacks increased the persuasiveness of a message. [Dabbs, J.M. Jr., & Janis, I. L. (1965). Why does eating while reading facilitate opinion change? An experimental inquiry. "Journal of Experimental Social psychology, 1", 133-144.]

Dabbs may be best known for his behavioral endocrinology work on testosterone. While popularly thought to be connected to aggression, Dabbs re-framed the connection to be between testosterone and dominance behaviors. In his view, aggression was one of several possible mechanisms by which dominance could occur. [Dabbs, J.M. Jr. (1998) Testosterone and the concept of dominance. "Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 21", 370-371.]

Dabbs looked beyond the simple and obvious connections to aggression and dominance. He went into the subtle aspects through which dominance might be exhibited. He found that high testosterone males had less friendly smiles [Dabbs, J.M. Jr. (1997). Testosterone, smiling, and facial appearance. "Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 21", 45-55.] even though they are more socially outgoing and engaging [Dabbs, J.M., Jr., Bernieri, F.J., Strong, R.K., Campo, R., & Milun, R. (2001). Going on stage: Testosterone in greetings and meetings. "Journal of Research in Personality, 35", 27-40.] . He also found high testosterone men and women often had high status occupations. [Dabbs, J.M. Jr., & Dabbs, M. G. (2000) "Heroes, Rogues, and Lovers: Testosterone and Behavior." New York:McGraw-Hill]

Not all of his research was about the effects of testosterone on behavior. He also examined how experiences and behavior affected testosterone. For instance, he found that testosterone rises for winners of chess matches [Mazur, A. & Booth, A. & Dabbs, Jr., J.M. (1992) Testosterone and chess competition. "Social Psychology Quarterly, 55", 70-77.] and in fans of winning sports teams. [Bernhardt, P.C., Dabbs, J.M. Jr., Fielden, J.A. & Lutter, C.D. (1998) Testosterone changes during vicarious experiences of winning and losing among fans at sporting events. "Physiology & Behavior, 65", 59-62.]

In 2000, he gathered these and other behavioral findings related to testosterone into a text, "Heroes, Rogues, and Lovers: Testosterone and Behavior." [Dabbs, J.M. Jr., & Dabbs, M. G. (2000) "Heroes, Rogues, and Lovers: Testosterone and Behavior." New York:McGraw-Hill]

Dabbs was well described by his colleague Barry Ruback in an "American Psychologist" obituary [Ruback, B. (2005). James McBride Dabbs Jr. (1937-2004). "American Psychologist, 60", 338.] , "Jim Dabbs's video "Making Things Visible" illustrates how social science advances when interesting questions are asked and creative methods are used to find answers. The video is a metaphor for his career, as these two aspects were hallmarks of his work and the basis for why many considered him the most creative person they had ever met."

References