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Richard H. Walters

Richard H. Walters (? - 1967) was a psychologist best known for his work developing social learning theory; with Albert Bandura, he co-authored the 1963 book Social Learning and Personality Development [ref 1], which included summaries of many laboratory studies conducted by Walters that demonstrated the power of imitative learning or modeling.

Little information is available about Walters' early life. He first emerges as a psychologist circa 1953 at Auckland University in New Zealand publishing relatively pedestrian research using clinical psychological tests [ref 2 and 3]. Five years later, he was on the faculty of the University of Toronto and producing a stream of studies on multiple topics, including his early collaboration with Stanford-based Bandura on studies of aggressive adolescents [ref 4]. In 1963 he was recruited to become the first chairman of the psychology department at the University of Waterloo [ref 5]. Under his leadership, the department grew from 3 members to 9 in just one year and to 36 members (plus 7 laboratory assistants) by 1966. Among his hires were Donald Meichenbaum (developer of stress inoculation training and a central figure in the development of cognitive-behavioral therapy [ref 6]), Kenneth Bowers (a hypnosis researcher [ref 7]), Douglas Crowne (best known for the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale [ref 8]), and Herbert Lefcourt (best known for research into locus of control [ref 9]. Walters career was truncated when he died in 1967.

References

1. Bandura, A., & Walters, R.H. (1963). Social learning and personality development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 2. Walters, R.H. (1953). Wechsler-Bellevue test results of prison inmates. Australian Journal of Psychology, 5, 46-54. 3. Walters, R.H. (1953). A preliminary analysis of the Rorschach records of 50 prison inmates. Journal of Projective Techniques, 17, 437-446. 4. Bandura, A., & Walters, R.H. (1959). Adolescent aggression: A study of the influence of child-training practices and family interrelationships. Oxford, England: Ronald. 5. Woody, E.Z., & Steffy, R.A. (April 2014). The UWaterloo clinical psychology program over half a century: A memoir. 6. Meichenbaum, Donald T. (1985). Stress inoculation training. Pergamon Press. 7. Obituary: Kenneth S. Bowers. 8. Herbert M. Lefcourt: 1936-2011.