Neal E. Miller facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Neal E. Miller
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| Born | August 3, 1909 |
| Died | March 23, 2002 (aged 92) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Washington (B.S., 1931) Stanford University (M.S., 1932) Yale University (Ph.D., 1935) |
| Known for | Biofeedback, Frustration–aggression hypothesis |
| Awards | Newcomb Cleveland Prize (1956) APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award (1959) National Medal of Science (1964) APA Award for Lifetime Contributions to Psychology (1991) Wilbur Cross Medal (1967) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Psychology |
| Institutions | Yale University Rockefeller University Cornell University Medical College |
Neal Elgar Miller (born August 3, 1909 – died March 23, 2002) was an American experimental psychologist. He was a very active person with many interests, including physics, biology, and writing. Miller decided to study psychology because it allowed him to explore all these different areas.
With his strong science background, he was inspired by his teachers and other leading psychologists. He focused on behavioral psychology and physiological psychology. This meant he studied how our bodies' automatic reactions, like heart rate or digestion, are connected to our behavior.
Miller's psychology career began with research on fear. He explored how fear can be learned and how it affects our actions. His work in behavioral medicine led to his most famous discovery: biofeedback. Throughout his life, he taught at important universities like Yale University and Rockefeller University. He was one of the youngest members of Yale's Institute of Human Relations. His achievements led to two awards being created in his honor. In 2002, a survey ranked Miller as the eighth most mentioned psychologist of the 20th century.
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Early Life and Education
Neal Miller was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1909. He grew up in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. His father, Irving Miller, was the head of the Department of Education and Psychology at Western Washington University. Neal Miller once said that his father's job might have influenced his own interest in psychology.
He was always curious about science. Miller first went to the University of Washington in 1931, where he studied biology and physics. He also enjoyed writing. In his final year of college, he realized that psychology would let him combine all his different interests. He earned his bachelor's degree (B.S.) from the University of Washington. He was very interested in behavioral psychology after this.
After his first degree, he studied at Stanford University in 1932. There, he earned his master's degree (M.S.) and became interested in the psychology of personality. While at Stanford, he joined his professor, Walter Miles, as a research assistant at the Institute of Human Relations at Yale University. At Yale, another professor encouraged him to study psychoanalysis even further.
He received his Ph.D. degree in psychology from Yale University in 1935. That same year, he spent a year in Vienna at the Institute of Psychoanalysis. He then returned to Yale as a faculty member in 1936. Miller worked at Yale University for 30 years, from 1936 to 1966. In 1950, he became a full professor at Yale. Later, he taught at Rockefeller University and Cornell University Medical College. In 1985, he returned to Yale as a research associate.
Exploring Behavior and the Mind
Miller's early research looked at ideas from Sigmund Freud about behavior. He tested these ideas in real-life situations. His most important topic was fear. Miller discovered that people could learn to be afraid through a process called conditioning. This means that if something scary happens with something else, you might start to fear that second thing too.
Miller then decided to study other automatic body responses, like hunger. He wanted to see if they worked in the same way as fear. His new ideas and ways of experimenting led to discoveries that changed how people thought about what motivates us and how we behave.
The Discovery of Biofeedback
Neal Miller was also one of the main people behind the idea of biofeedback. Today, many of his ideas have grown and been added to. However, Miller is given credit for coming up with most of the basic concepts of biofeedback. He discovered biofeedback while doing experiments on conditioning with rats.
Biofeedback is a technique where people learn to control their body's automatic functions. These are things like heart rate, blood pressure, or muscle tension. Normally, you don't think about controlling these. But with biofeedback, you get information (feedback) about these functions. This helps you learn to change them. For example, you might see your heart rate on a screen and learn to make it go slower.
Connecting Different Ideas in Psychology
Neal Miller, along with other psychologists John Dollard and O. Hobart Mowrer, helped to combine ideas from behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Behaviorism focuses on how we learn through rewards and punishments. Psychoanalysis looks at how our unconscious thoughts and past experiences affect us.
They were able to explain complex psychoanalytic ideas using simpler behavioral terms. This made them easier to understand. They especially focused on the stimulus-response theory. This theory says that a certain event (stimulus) causes a certain reaction (response).
These three psychologists also understood Sigmund Freud's idea of anxiety as a "signal of danger." They believed that some parts of Freud's work could be changed to help with this. Miller, Dollard, and Mowrer thought that if a person felt less anxious, they would experience "anxiety relief." Miller also worked with O. Hobart Mowrer to create a special piece of equipment called the "Miller-Mowrer Shuttlebox." This was used for experiments on learning.
During his career, Miller wrote eight books and 276 papers and articles. He worked with John Dollard on the book Personality and Psychotherapy (1950). This book discussed how mental health issues (neurosis) are connected to how we learn.
Awards and Recognition
Neal Miller received many honors for his important work. In 1958, he was chosen to be a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. This is a very high honor for scientists.
He was the president of the American Psychological Association from 1960 to 1961. This is the largest organization for psychologists in the United States. He also received two major awards from the APA: the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award in 1959 and the Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology in 1991.
In 1964, President Johnson gave him the National Medal of Science. This was a huge achievement because he was the first psychologist ever to receive this award. Miller was also a distinguished member of Psi Chi, which is an international honor society for psychology students. In 1967, he received the Wilbur Cross Medal. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
Besides these, he was also the president of several other important groups. These included the Society for Neurosciences, the Biofeedback Society of America, and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.
