Dollard, John, 1900-1980

John Dollard was born on August 29, 1900, in Menasha, Wisconsin. He studied commerce and English at the University of Wisconsin, receiving a B.A. in 1922. In 1931, he earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. He was a professor of psychology at Yale University from 1952 to 1969. His best known work, Caste and Class in a Southern Town (1937) describes the social system in place in the South that kept African-Americans in a lower caste and economic class. Dollard's other published works include Frustration and Aggression in 1939 and Fear and Battle in 1943. John Dollard died on October 8, 1980, in New Haven, Connecticut.

John Dollard (1900-1980) was a psychologist and social scientist best known for his studies on race relations in America. He received his Ph. D. in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1931 and in 1932 was appointed research associate in psychology at Yale University's Institute of Human Relations where he conducted some of his most influential work. From 1942 to 1945 Dollard served as a consultant for the United States Department of War during which time he and fellow Yale psychologist Neal Miller produced a study titled Fear and Courage under Battle Conditions. Their research investigated fear and morale of soldiers in modern combat conditions. Three hundred veterans who had served as volunteers with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War were used as research subjects for the study. Anthropology major and veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade John V. Murra assisted with the dispersal and collection of questionnaires. With the aid of a Rockefeller grant Dollard and his team summarized their findings in Fear in Battle (1944), a self-help handbook for WWII military personnel. In 1952 Dollard became a professor in Yale University's Department of Psychology and in 1969 he retired with the title professor emeritus.