Sharon Brehm
{{Short description|American psychologist (1945–2018)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Sharon Stephens Brehm
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1945|4|18}}
| birth_place = Roanoke, Virginia, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2018|3|30|1945|4|18}}
| death_place = Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.
| residence =
| nationality = American
| fields = Social psychology
| workplaces =
| alma_mater = Duke University (B.A., Ph.D.)
Harvard University (A.M.)
| doctoral_advisor =
| doctoral_students =
| known_for = Past president of the American Psychological Association
| awards =
| footnotes =
}}
Sharon Stephens Brehm (April 18, 1945 – March 30, 2018) was an American psychologist who served as president of the American Psychological Association (APA). She was a professor of psychology at the University of Kansas. She held administrative roles at Binghamton University and Ohio University, before becoming chancellor of Indiana University Bloomington.
Early life and career
Brehm was born in Roanoke, Virginia on April 18, 1945.{{Cite web|url=http://www.allencares.com/m/obituaries/Sharon-Brehm/Memories|title=Sharon Paine Stephens Brehm - View Obituary & Service Information}} She earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from Duke University. She went to Harvard University for an AM in clinical psychology and then returned to Duke to earn a PhD in clinical psychology.{{cite web|title=Sharon Stephens Brehm, PhD|url=http://www.apa.org/about/governance/president/sharon-s-brehm.aspx|publisher=American Psychological Association|accessdate=May 24, 2014}}
Brehm spent 15 years at the University of Kansas, where she taught psychology and directed the honors program.{{cite web|title=Biography of Sharon Stephens Brehm, Ph.D.|url=http://events.nytimes.com/ref/college/faculty/coll_pres_brehmbio.html?8bl|work=The New York Times|accessdate=May 24, 2014}}{{Dead link|date=January 2025}} She served as dean of arts and sciences at the Binghamton University from 1990 to 1996.{{cite web|last=Coker|first=Eric|title=Meet the dean: Anne McCall to lead Harpur College into new era|url=http://www.binghamton.edu/harpur/perspective/featured-stories/anne-mccall.html|publisher=Binghamton University|accessdate=May 24, 2014}} She later served as provost at Ohio University and she was chancellor at Indiana University Bloomington between 2001 and 2003.{{cite web|title=Sharon Brehm elected president of American Psychological Association|url=http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news-archive/2720.html|publisher=Indiana University|accessdate=May 24, 2014}}
She served as the 2007 president of the APA. During her term, the organization created the Presidential Task Force on Integrative Healthcare for an Aging Population, APA-SRCD Task Force on Math and Science Education (with the Society for Research in Child Development) and the Presidential Task Force on Institutional Review Boards and Psychological Science.
Personal life and death
Brehm met psychologist {{ill|Jack Brehm|pl}} when she went to work for him as a graduate assistant. The couple got married in 1968. Though they divorced several years later, they continued to work together and even co-authored a book.{{cite book|last=Wright|first=Rex, Greenberg, Jeff, Brehm, Sharon|title=Motivational Analyses of Social Behavior: Building on Jack Brehm's Contributions to Psychology|year=2004|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=113563310X|pages=5–6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PE54AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA3|accessdate=May 24, 2014}} Jack Brehm constructed the theory of reactance and Sharon adapted it to the clinical psychology setting.{{cite book|last=Engle|first=David, Arkowitz, Hal|title=Ambivalence in Psychotherapy: Facilitating Readiness to Change|year=2006|publisher=Guilford Press|isbn=159385255X|page=44|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3I63p5uMcnkC&pg=PA44}}
In a 2013 interview, Brehm discussed her Alzheimer's disease diagnosis, the early symptoms of which had appeared in 2010.{{cite web|last=Denny|first=Dann|title=Sharon Brehm on living with Alzheimer's: 'This is my new reality'|url=http://news.indiana.edu/releases/iub/iu-in-the-news/dnb-09-10-2013-2.shtml|publisher=Indiana University|accessdate=May 24, 2014}} She died from complications of the disease on March 30, 2018, at the age of 72.[https://news.iu.edu/stories/2018/04/iub/releases/02-passing-of-former-bloomington-chancellor-sharon-brehm.html Indiana University mourns passing of former IU Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm]
Works
- Psychological Reactance: A Theory of Freedom and Control (with J. W. Brehm, 1981)
- Intimate Relationships (with Rowland Miller and Daniel Perlman, multiple editions)
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
{{APA Presidents|state=uncollapsed}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brehm, Sharon}}
Category:Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni
Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
Category:Binghamton University faculty
Category:Ohio University faculty
Category:Presidents of the American Psychological Association
Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in Indiana
Category:American women psychologists
Category:American women academics
Category:21st-century American women
Category:People from Roanoke, Virginia