GIVING
Celebrated Psychologist and Founder of “The Kazdin Method” Awarded Honorary Doctor of Science
By Julia Halprin Jackson Photos courtesy of Alan E. Kazdin
Renowned clinical psychologist and professor Alan E. Kazdin returns to San José State to accept an Honorary Doctor of Science at the College of Social Sciences commencement ceremony on May 22.
Alan E. Kazdin
Alan E. Kazdin, ’67 Psychology, ’26 Honorary Doctor, credits two of his professors at San José State with fundamentally changing the way he learns and thinks: the late Professor Emeritus of Psychology Thomas Tutko, and the late Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Dean of Humanities Lucius Eastman. As a college freshman, Kazdin’s primary focus was on the Spartan basketball team (he played alongside civil rights pioneers Tommie Smith, ’69 Social Science, ’05 Honorary Doctorate, and Harry Edwards, ’64 Social Science, ’16 Honorary Doctorate). But when his professors demonstrated true interest in Kazdin’s own curiosity, his career as a psychologist began to take shape.
“Their impact on me was enormous — the work I do today is very much still influenced by them,” says Kazdin, who in addition to serving as the Sterling Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Child Psychiatry at Yale University, has published 52 books and is widely recognized as one of the most influential clinical psychologists of the past 50 years. “I was so completely enthralled by the education I had at San José State. I had a great deal of individual attention. Working so closely with my professors was such a highlight.”
Eastman, who worked at SJSU for 42 years, recognized Kazdin’s hunger for learning and offered him two independent study courses. Kazdin describes sitting in his professor’s office taking diligent notes as Eastman stood and lectured opposite him, one-on-one. Tutko invited Kazdin to assist him at local conferences and encouraged him to pursue research opportunities, later inspiring Kazdin to apply for graduate school in psychology.
As a graduate student at Northwestern University, Kazdin was first introduced to the psychology of changing behaviors in a real-world environment when he was hired at a place that supported emotionally disturbed young children and adults. He dove headfirst into the literature, gathered resources and began testing out new approaches to change behavior.
“I was so completely enthralled by the education I had at San José State."
— Alan Kazdin
“Decades before talk of ‘trauma-informed practice (actually, before recognition of trauma outside of combat situations), Dr. Kazdin operated from a hopeful lens that assigned blame not to broken families, disordered characters, or broken brains, but rather to unfortunate situations,” writes Matthew Capriotti, professor and associate chair of the Clinical Psychology Department at SJSU. “Any parent or teacher who has used a ‘star chart’ or another kind of reward program to help a child learn new skills or routines has drawn on Dr. Kazdin’s work.”
Over the years, he developed the Kazdin Method of Parent Management Training (PMT), a revolutionary model for parents and educators alike that focuses on effusive positive reinforcement, examines the circumstances that trigger behaviors and encourages repeated practice and simulations to educate the child alongside the adult.
Beyond academia, Kazdin’s leadership in addressing the global mental health treatment gap through innovative and scalable models of care has advanced international conversations around access to mental health services. A former president of the American Psychological Association, Kazdin’s free online Coursera and Yale parenting course has reached tens of thousands of learners worldwide.
His groundbreaking work in the diagnosis, assessment and treatment of severe aggressive and antisocial behavior in children, including the development of evidence-based interventions such as parent management training and cognitive problem-solving skills training, has fundamentally shaped the field.
Alan E. Kazdin (number 11, first row, second from left) and the Spartan basketball team, Photo courtesy of Alan E. Kazdin.
In a media landscape populated by parenting blogs, podcasts and online communities, Kazdin is careful not to offer his opinions on anything; instead he’s laser-focused on providing evidence-based research to those seeking help with their children’s behavior.
“I have no agenda; if you need help, we have tools based on science that you can use,” he says. “Understanding itself doesn’t lead to change. Here’s another view — and there’s research that supports this — change leads to improved understanding.”
While much of San José State has changed in the nearly six decades since he graduated, Kazdin still sees the impact of his mentors in his work. He is excited to return to campus to receive his honorary degree in late May.
“It’s a huge honor, and an especially huge honor because of the impact San José State has had on me, and what SJSU has become as a university,” he says. “San José State changed my way of thinking. It all started at San José State.”
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