Theodore Newcomb

Theodore Newcomb was born in Rock Creek, Ohio, on July 24, 1903. His father was a minister. The Newcombs were ostracized for coming out against the Ku Klux Klan when Theodore was growing up. Newcomb attended small rural schools until he started high school in Cleveland. He graduated as valedictorian of his high school, and during his address he criticized the New York State Legislature for "Having denied seats to two legally elected members on grounds that they were bolshvistic socialists." Newcomb graduated summa cum laude from Oberlin College in 1924 and attended Union Theological Seminary. While at seminary, Newcomb decided to become a psychologist. He completed a PhD at Columbia University in 1929[2] where he worked closely with Goodwin Watson and Gardner Murphy.

Newcomb held academic appointments at Lehigh University (1929-1930), Case Western Reserve University (1930-1934), Bennington College (1934-1941) and the University of Michigan (1941-1972). He served in the military during World War II between 1942 and 1945, assigned to the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service in the Office of strategic Services and in the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey. Shortly after his return from the war, Newcomb founded Michigan's Survey Research Center, which became the Institute for Social Research. He also founded Michigan's doctoral program in social psychology with Robert Angell and Donald Marquis, and he chaired the program from 1947 to 1953.[3] He was also editor of Psychological Review from 1954-1958 [4]

Newcomb died at home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1984 at 81 years old. He had suffered a stroke three weeks earlier.[5] He was survived by his wife, the former Mary Esther Shipherd; two daughters, Esther Goody, of Cambridge, England, and Suzanne Mosher, of Chelsea, Michigan; a son, Theodore M. Newcomb, Jr., of Seattle; seven grandchildren, and a sister, Constance Eck, of East Lansing, Michigan.

He studied the kinds of individual and small-group teachings that were possible at a small college. After a four-year longitudinal study he was able to show degrees of change concerning then contemporary public issues and how that varied directly with length of stay in the college and the status position within the student body. 25 years later a follow-up study supported his original data. This study is known as the Bennington College Study, and still highly discussed in social psychology. He developed many longitudinal studies, something that was considered a novelty in the psychological field.

One of Newcomb's greatest contributions involved his study of the acquaintance process. Newcomb offered 17 men entering college free rent as long as they recorded their attitudes, likes, and dislikes each week.[2][6] The study led to a number of principles of attraction that lead to the formation of groups both elaborated by Newcomb, and then later by other researchers.

The Proximity Principle is the tendency for individuals to associate, befriend, and be attracted to those who are nearby. Newcomb assigned each of the young women in his Bennington College study into their rooms at random. Therefore, they were each paired with a roommate at random. Despite the random assignment most of the roommates were close friends by the end of the study.[6]

These results have been further corroborated by findings showing students becoming friends with students adjacent to them in assigned seating, and college students sending more emails to students in nearby dorms as opposed to far away.[6][7]

The Elaboration Principle is the tendency for groups to form when smaller groups (e.g. dyads and triads) develop ties and linkages to form larger more functional groups. Essentially, core group members tend to reach out and create new acquaintances, allowing the group to expand through the Elaboration Principle.[6]

Newcomb found that many of the dyads in his Bennington College study consisted of roommates and individuals in adjoining rooms. These soon grew as other individuals became attracted to members of these dyads, allowing the smaller groups to grow and amalgamate.[6]

This has been further corroborated by studies observing groups of individuals like peer-groups, and social movements.[6]

The Similarity principle is the tendency for individuals to join groups in which the members are similar to them in some way. Newcomb found that his sample consisted of two main sub-groups. A group of nine and a group of seven (One young man was outside both of these groups, adding to the total of 17 men). The two sub-groups were separated by both their interests and backgrounds. For example, one group favored liberal politics and religious ideas, were enrolled in the arts college, were from the same part of the country, as well they shared comparable aesthetic, social, and theoretical views. The other group, however, were all veterans, engineering majors, and shared comparable political, religious, and economic views.[6]

The types of similarities that can attract group members to each other can be related to values, attitudes, and beliefs. They can also consist of more irrelevant similarities such as race, sex, age, and other demographic factors.[8]

These additional principles that grew out of Newcomb's initial work have been worked on mostly by other researchers, and some have had conflicting findings within the research.[6]

The tendency for individuals to seek members that are dissimilar in ways that fit well with the other group members. For example, someone who enjoys leading would fit well with followers as opposed to other leaders.[6]

Some research has found that in dyads similarity is much more common a reason to join a group,[9] while other studies have found close groups will often have complementary, but dissimilar needs.[10]

The tendency for individuals to respond favorably when others accept them or act approvingly towards them. Individuals tend to reciprocate liking with liking.[6]

Newcomb and others have found evidence for the principle.[6][11]

The tendency for individuals, as rational creatures, to seek out groups that offer the cost and the greatest.[6]