Sharon Brehm

{{Short description|American psychologist (1945–2018)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Sharon Stephens Brehm | image = | alt = | caption =  | birth_date = {{birth date|1945|4|18}} | birth_place = [[Roanoke, Virginia]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2018|3|30|1945|4|18}} | death_place = [[Bloomington, Indiana]], U.S. | residence = | fields = [[Social psychology]] | workplaces = | alma_mater = [[Duke University]] (B.A., Ph.D.) [[Harvard University]] (A.M.) | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | known_for = Past president of the [[American Psychological Association]] | awards = | footnotes = }}

'''Sharon Stephens Brehm''' (April 18, 1945 – March 30, 2018) was an American psychologist who served as president of the [[American Psychological Association]] (APA). She was a professor of psychology at the [[University of Kansas]]. She held administrative roles at [[Binghamton University]] and [[Ohio University]], before becoming chancellor of [[Indiana University Bloomington]].

==Early life and career== Brehm was born in [[Roanoke, Virginia]] on April 18, 1945.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.allencares.com/m/obituaries/Sharon-Brehm/Memories|title=Sharon Paine Stephens Brehm - View Obituary & Service Information}}</ref> She earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from [[Duke University]]. She went to [[Harvard University]] for an AM in clinical psychology and then returned to Duke to earn a PhD in clinical psychology.<ref name=APAPres>{{cite web|title=Sharon Stephens Brehm, PhD|url=http://www.apa.org/about/governance/president/sharon-s-brehm.aspx|publisher=[[American Psychological Association]]|accessdate=May 24, 2014}}</ref>

Brehm spent 15 years at the [[University of Kansas]], where she taught psychology and directed the honors program.<ref name=APAPres/><ref name=NYT>{{cite web|title=Biography of Sharon Stephens Brehm, Ph.D.|url=http://events.nytimes.com/ref/college/faculty/coll_pres_brehmbio.html?8bl|work=[[The New York Times]]|accessdate=May 24, 2014|archive-date=May 25, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140525200759/http://events.nytimes.com/ref/college/faculty/coll_pres_brehmbio.html?8bl|url-status=dead}}</ref> She served as dean of arts and sciences at the [[Binghamton University]] from 1990 to 1996.<ref name=Coker>{{cite web|last=Coker|first=Eric|title=Meet the dean: Anne McCall to lead Harpur College into new era|url=http://www.binghamton.edu/harpur/perspective/featured-stories/anne-mccall.html|publisher=[[Binghamton University]]|accessdate=May 24, 2014|archive-date=May 25, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140525232607/http://www.binghamton.edu/harpur/perspective/featured-stories/anne-mccall.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> She later served as provost at [[Ohio University]] and she was chancellor at [[Indiana University Bloomington]] between 2001 and 2003.<ref name=IU>{{cite web|title=Sharon Brehm elected president of American Psychological Association|url=http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news-archive/2720.html|publisher=[[Indiana University]]|accessdate=May 24, 2014|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304054113/http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news-archive/2720.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

She served as the 2007 president of the APA.<ref name="APAPres" /> During her term, the organization created the Presidential Task Force on Integrative Healthcare for an Aging Population, APA-SRCD Task Force on Math and Science Education (with the [[Society for Research in Child Development]]) and the Presidential Task Force on Institutional Review Boards and Psychological Science.<ref name=APAPres/>

==Personal life and death== Brehm met psychologist {{ill|Jack Brehm|pl}} when she went to work for him as a graduate assistant. The couple got married in 1968. Though they divorced several years later, they continued to work together and even co-authored a book.<ref name=Wright>{{cite book|last=Wright|first=Rex, Greenberg, Jeff, Brehm, Sharon|title=Motivational Analyses of Social Behavior: Building on Jack Brehm's Contributions to Psychology|year=2004|publisher=[[Psychology Press]]|isbn=113563310X|pages=5–6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PE54AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA3|accessdate=May 24, 2014}}</ref> Jack Brehm constructed the theory of [[reactance (psychology)|reactance]] and Sharon adapted it to the clinical psychology setting.<ref name=Engle>{{cite book|last=Engle|first=David, Arkowitz, Hal|title=Ambivalence in Psychotherapy: Facilitating Readiness to Change|year=2006|publisher=[[Guilford Press]]|isbn=159385255X|page=44|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3I63p5uMcnkC&pg=PA44}}</ref>

In a 2013 interview, Brehm discussed her [[Alzheimer's disease]] diagnosis, the early symptoms of which had appeared in 2010.<ref name=Denny>{{cite web|last=Denny|first=Dann|title=Sharon Brehm on living with Alzheimer's: 'This is my new reality'|url=http://news.indiana.edu/releases/iub/iu-in-the-news/dnb-09-10-2013-2.shtml|publisher=[[Indiana University]]|accessdate=May 24, 2014|archive-date=May 25, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140525234112/http://news.indiana.edu/releases/iub/iu-in-the-news/dnb-09-10-2013-2.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref> She died from complications of the disease on March 30, 2018, at the age of 72.<ref>[https://news.iu.edu/stories/2018/04/iub/releases/02-passing-of-former-bloomington-chancellor-sharon-brehm.html Indiana University mourns passing of former IU Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm]</ref>

==Works== * ''Psychological Reactance: A Theory of Freedom and Control'' (with J. W. Brehm, 1981) * ''Intimate Relationships'' (with Rowland Miller and Daniel Perlman, multiple editions)

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brehm, Sharon}} [[Category:1945 births]] [[Category:2018 deaths]] [[Category:Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni]] [[Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni]] [[Category:Binghamton University faculty]] [[Category:Ohio University faculty]] [[Category:Presidents of the American Psychological Association]] [[Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in Indiana]] [[Category:American women psychologists]] [[Category:American women academics]] [[Category:21st-century American women]] [[Category:People from Roanoke, Virginia]] [[Category:American clinical psychologists]] [[Category:20th-century American psychologists]]