TABLE OF CONTENTS |
FRONT PAGE
| NEXT ARTICLE |
PREVIOUS ARTICLE |
UNC HOMEPAGE
Robert Bennett Cairns, a distinguished professor of psychology and director of
the University's Center for Developmental Science, died Nov. 10 in a car
accident in Maine. He was 66.
He taught at the University the past 26 years and was considered a pioneering
expert on human development and the development of aggressive and violent
behavior.
"The entire University community suffers a great loss with Professor Cairns'
death," said Provost Richard "Dick" Richardson. "The people who work with the
Center for Developmental Science have lost not only a scholarly leader, but
also a personal mentor and friend."
Cairns and his wife, Beverley, a research associate in psychology, launched
the center's Carolina Longitudinal Study in 1981. The journal Developmental
Psychology published results last December. The study followed the social
development and academic achievement of 695 youths from grade school to young
adulthood.
A subsequent center study gathered parallel information on the first 695
subjects' offspring, producing a unique intergenerational study with the same
information on children and their parents.
A Los Angeles native, Cairns earned a bachelor's degree in 1955 from Pasadena
College. He earned a doctorate in 1960 from Stanford University. Before coming
to Carolina, he taught at the universities of Pennsylvania and Indiana.
The University honored Cairns in 1991 with a Cary C. Boshamer professorship.
The Center for Developmental Science, created in 1994 under Cairns' leadership,
brought together experts from nearly a dozen different disciplines, all
concerned with aspects of development.
"Dr. Cairns was an innovator and an inspiration," said psychology department
Chair Peter Ornstein. "He had a rare ability to bridge across academic areas
and construct new paradigms for research and learning.
"With contagious enthusiasm, he brought researchers from many disciplines
together. The resulting fusion of concepts led to breakthroughs with important
applications for the betterment of humankind."
The American Psychological Association honored Cairns with its 1998 G. Stanley
Hall Award for essential contributions to developmental psychology, including
research, student training and other scholarly endeavors.
His books include Social Development, The Analysis of Social Interactions,
Lifelines and Risks (with B.D. Cairns), Developmental Science (with G.H. Elder
Jr. and E.J. Costello), Aggression and Violence (with D. Stoff) and Methods and
Models for Studying the Individual (with L. Bergman and J. Kagan).
TABLE OF CONTENTS |
FRONT PAGE
| NEXT ARTICLE |
PREVIOUS ARTICLE |
UNC HOMEPAGE