20 Facts About Dalbir Bindra

Dalbir Bindra FRSC was a Canadian neuropsychologist and a professor in the psychology department at McGill University.

Dalbir Bindra is known for his contributions to the neurobiological study of motivation and behaviour and his two books on these topics; Motivation: A Systematic Reinterpretation, and A Theory of Intelligent Behaviour.

Dalbir Bindra served as chair of the McGill University Psychology Department.

Dalbir Bindra was born in Rawalpindi, British India.

Dalbir Bindra had three brothers, all of whom found success in military careers: two became generals and one became an admiral.

At McGill, the core of Dalbir Bindra's research examined the neurophysiology of fear and motivation and the role of the former in the latter.

Dalbir Bindra published his second book, A Theory of Intelligent Behaviour, in 1976, describing the integration of neural processes underlying motivation and sensory-motor coordination to produce intelligent behaviour.

Dalbir Bindra was elected president of the Canadian Psychological Association in 1958.

Dalbir Bindra served as chair of the Associate Committee on Experimental Psychology of the National Research Council of Canada from 1962 to 1968.

Dalbir Bindra applied research in pharmacology and neurology to human executive functioning.

Dalbir Bindra defined motivation as a dynamic interaction between biological, social, internal, and external factors.

Dalbir Bindra strongly felt that motivation, as a topic in psychology, could unify diverse psychological subfields that typically held conflicting ideas.

Dalbir Bindra was a forerunner in integrating methods and findings from both sides of the nature vs nurture debate to support his research in motivation.

Dalbir Bindra's research combined a diverse set of theories and topics, including goal direction, sensory cues, arousal, blood chemistry, and reinforcement.

Dalbir Bindra applied these methods to study a range of topics including intelligence, learning, exploratory behaviour, emotion, disinhibition, and habituation.

Dalbir Bindra found that these drugs decreased and altered the pattern of this response in rats, indicating a type of induced avoidance behaviour.

Towards the end of his career, Dalbir Bindra expanded his research to include psychological disorders manifesting in behavioural problems.

Dalbir Bindra published papers about human weeping and language in apes in 1972 and 1981, respectively.

Dalbir Bindra was awarded the Canadian Centennial Medal in 1967, and in 1973 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a rare honour for a psychologist.

In recognition of his teaching and research contributions to McGill's Department of Psychology, the Dalbir Bindra Fellowship was established, valued at $10,000.