Eli A. Rubinstein (1919-2006) was born in New York City in 1919. He received his Bachelor of Social Science degree from the City College of New York in 1939 and his Master of Arts degree in psychology from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in 1948. Rubinstein went on to complete his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the Catholic University of America in 1951. From 1943 to 1946, Rubinstein was on active duty with the U. S. Naval Reserve and from 1951 to 1955, he served as the Assistant Chief Clinical Psychologist of the Mental Hygiene Clinic for the Veteran's Administration in Washington, D.C. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Rubinstein worked for the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in various capacities, until becoming the Assistant Director for Extramural Programs in 1965. After leaving NIMH in 1971, Rubinstein became a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the State University of New York in Stony Brook, New York, where he remained until 1978. In 1978, he became an Adjunct Research Professor at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, first in the Department of Psychology, and later in the School of Journalism. Rubinstein died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on May 15, 2006.
Rubinstein, an expert on the effects of television violence on the behavior of children, served as the Vice Chairman of the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior, the first major federally funded project examining the effects of television violence on social behavior. The Committee was formed in 1969 and issued its final report in 1972. Rubinstein was also an advisor and contributor to the ten-year update of the Surgeon General's report, published in 1982. Throughout his career, Rubinstein served as an expert witness before several congressional committees on the effects of television viewing on children and published hundreds of articles and reviews concerning the effects of media on social behavior.
From the guide to the Eli A. Rubinstein papers, 1950-1995, (Center for the History of Psychology)
