{{Short description|American psychologist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Robert Perloff | birth_name = | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = February 3, 1921 | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2013|04|15|1921|02|03}} | death_place = Oakland, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. | field = Psychology, <br> Business administration | work_institution = Purdue University, University of Pittsburgh | alma_mater = Temple University (BA)<br>Ohio State University (PhD) | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | known_for = former president of the APA, <br> the article "''Self-Interest and Personal Responsibility Redux''" | prizes = }}
'''Robert Perloff''' (February 3, 1921 – April 15, 2013) was an American psychology and business administration professor emeritus, who taught at Purdue University and the University of Pittsburgh. He was a president of the Association for Consumer Research and the American Psychological Association.
== Life and work == Born and raised in Philadelphia, Perloff was drafted into the United States Army and fought in the Philippines during World War II.{{cn|date=February 2025}} Upon his return, Perloff graduated from Temple University in 1949, and his Ph.D. in psychology from Ohio State University. Following postdoctoral work, he taught industrial and consumer psychology at Purdue University. Much of his career was spent as professor of Business and Psychology at University of Pittsburgh.{{cn|date=February 2025}}
He was president of the Association for Consumer Research and the American Psychological Association (APA). In his 1985 APA presidential address, "Self-Interest and Personal Responsibility Redux", he praised self-interest. It was printed in ''American Psychologist'' (vol. 42, 1987) and the journal called it "one of 50 classic articles published in the journal's previous 50 years."<ref>[http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov03/going.html Psychologists Defying the Crowd: Stories of Those Who Battled the Establishment and Won" (APA, 2003), edited by APA President Robert J. Sternberg, PhD.]</ref>
In 1995, Perloff and 51 others signed "Mainstream Science on Intelligence",<ref name="gottfredson">Gottfredson, Linda (December 13, 1994). Mainstream Science on Intelligence. ''Wall Street Journal'', p. A18.</ref> a statement written by Linda Gottfredson and published in the ''Wall Street Journal'', which addressed the controversy about intelligence research that followed the publication of the 1994 book ''The Bell Curve''. Also in 1995, Perloff was named to an American Psychological Association task force that reviewed controversial issues in response to the claims made during the ''Bell Curve'' controversy, producing a report titled "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns."<ref>[http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/apa96.shtml Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns]</ref>
At the APA's 2001 Annual Convention, Dr. Perloff condemned what he considered the APA's one-sided political activism. "The APA is too politically correct...and too obeisant to special interests"<ref>[http://www.narth.com/#!narth-and-the-apa---a-brief-history/c226l "Former APA President Condemns APA for Barring Research"] via NARTH, Narth.com.</ref> He referred the removal of homosexuality from DSM-III by APA as the willingness of many psychologists to trample patients rights to treatment in the interest of political correctness and added that making such choice unethical would deprive a patient of a treatment of choice because the threat of sanctions would eliminate any psychologist who engaged in such treatment.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wright |first1=Rogers H. |last2=Cummings |first2=Nicholas A. |title=Destructive Trends in Mental Health: The Well Intentioned Path to Harm |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-42355-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IFCB_BnydbwC&q=nicolus+cummings+political+correctness+not+science&pg=PT41 |access-date=2 August 2020 |language=en}}</ref>
In 2004, Perloff was the keynote speaker at the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality's Annual Conference. In support of the mission statement of NARTH, he concluded, "The individual's right for self-determination of sexuality -- or sexual autonomy -- is, I am happy to see, inherent in NARTH's position statement: 'NARTH respects each client's dignity, autonomy, and free agency...every individual has the right to claim a gay identity, or to develop their heterosexual potential. The right to seek therapy to change one's sexual adaptation is considered self-evident and inalienable.' I subscribe fully to the aforementioned NARTH position statement."<ref>[http://www.narth.com/docs/perloff.html Former APA President Supports NARTH's Mission Statement, Assails APA's Intolerance of Differing Views]</ref> Perloff was the 2008 recipient of NARTH's President's Award.<ref>[http://narth.com/2010/12/dr-robert-perloff-former-apa-president-accepts-the-narth-presidents-award Dr. Robert Perloff, Former APA President, Accepts the NARTH President’s Award]</ref>
Perloff died of heart failure on April 15, 2013, at UPMC Magee Women's Hospital.<ref name=obit>{{cite news|last=Carpenter|first=Mackenzie|title=Obituary: Robert Perloff / University of Pittsburgh professor, father of consumer psychology|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/obituaries/obituary-robert-perlfof-university-of-pittsburgh-professor-father-of-consumer-psychology-684276/|access-date=30 April 2013|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|date=April 20, 2013}}</ref>
==Selected publications== * Datta L-E, Perloff R. ''Improving Evaluations''. 1979: SAGE Focus Editions. {{ISBN|0-8039-1240-4}}.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.temple.edu/pbk/perloff.html Robert Perloff Profile] via Temple University
{{APA Presidents|state=uncollapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perloff, Robert}} Category:1921 births Category:2013 deaths Category:Ohio State University Graduate School alumni Category:Presidents of the American Psychological Association Category:United States Army personnel of World War II Category:Temple University alumni Category:Purdue University faculty Category:Academics from Philadelphia Category:University of Pittsburgh faculty