Lawrence S. Wrightsman (1931–2019).

Abstract

Presents an obituary of Lawrence S. Wrightsman (1931-2019). Lawrence ("Larry") Samuel Wrightsman Jr. was born in Houston, Texas, on October 31, 1931, son of a schoolteacher and a petroleum engineer, and was raised in the River Oaks neighborhood. In the early 1940s, Wrightsman participated in a national radio show called Quiz Kids while 10 years old and still in elementary school; he later described this as his "intellectual peak." Larry majored in psychology at Southern Methodist University, minoring in journalism. He served as editor of the college newspaper and worked as a reporter for the Houston Post. He left journalism to study measurement and mass communications at the University of Minnesota, but a seminar with Stanley Schachter enticed him into social psychology. His 1959 dissertation on anxiety and affiliation was supervised by Schachter. Larry always had a deeply held interest in civil rights and racial justice. Larry was known by many generations of undergraduates for his outstanding textbooks in social psychology. Wrightsman's texts were deeply inspiring to students. At conferences, graduate students and young professors would often gush about how one of his texts had changed their worldview and inspired them to seek a career in psychology. In the 1980s, Larry developed an interest in psychology's potential contributions to legal issues and began a research program on jury decision-making. Larry was also instrumental in laying the foundations of psychology and law. By the numbers, Larry's contributions were extraordinary. He authored and edited over 50 published books. His last book, Ten Little-Known Facts About the Supreme Court (2016), is still available on Amazon.com. Larry was in a wheelchair for the last 6 years of his life, yet after his retirement he published four chapters and finished five authored or edited books. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).