Article published In:
Narrative InquiryVol. 25:2 (2015) ► pp.372–399
A sketch of Theodore R. Sarbin’s life
Ted Sarbin was born on May 8, 1911 in Cleveland, Ohio. He died on August 31, 2005, in Carmel, California. He was born into a poor Jewish family from eastern Europe, and died at his home — beloved by his friends and family, and acclaimed by his professional colleagues as a psychologist of distinction. This article traces the course of his life — with special attention to the formative influences in his education as a psychologist. As a psychologist, he became a significant critical voice — arguing for a psychology that would embrace narrative as a principle of understanding human life, and contextualism, as opposed to mechanism, as a world view.
References (15)
Allen, V.L., & Scheibe, K.E. (1984). The social context of conduct. New York: Praeger.
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor.
Heidbreder, E. (1933). Seven psychologies. New York: Century.
Hevern, V.W., & Blatner, A. (2011). The early influence of Moreno and psychodrama on Theodore Sarbin and role theory. Journal of Psychodrama, Sociometry, and Group Psychotherapy, 60(1), 11–18.
Meehl, P.E. (1954). Clinical versus statistical prediction. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Sarbin, T.R. (1941). The relative accuracy of clinical and statistical predictions of academic success (Ph.D. dissertation). Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations, 351, Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
. (1943). A contribution to the study of actuarial and individual methods of prediction. American Journal of Sociology, 481, 593–602. 
. (1954). Role theory. In G. Lindzey (Ed.), Handbook of social psychology (vol. 11). Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.
. (1969a). On the distinction between social roles and social types, with special reference to the hippie. American Journal of Psychiatry, 1251, 1024–1031.
. (1969b). The myth of the criminal type. Collected Papers of the Center for Advanced Studies. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University.
. (1994). Steps to the narratory principle: An autobiographical essay. In J. Lee (Ed.), Life and story: Autobiographies for a narrative psychology. Westport, CT: Praeger.
. (2005). The poetics of my identity. In G. Yancey & S. Hadley (Eds.), Narrative identities: Psychologists engaged in self-construction. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Sarbin, T.R. Carney, R.M., & Eoyang, C. (Eds.) (1994). Citizen Espionage; Studies in trust and betrayal. New York: Praeger.
Sarbin, T.R., & Mancuso, J.C. (1980). Schizophrenia: Medical diagnosis or moral verdict? New York: Pergamon Press.
Sarbin, T.R., Taft, R., & Bailey, D.E. (1960). Clinical inference and cognitive theory. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.