30 Facts About Nathan Azrin

Nathan H Azrin was a behavioral modification researcher, psychologist, and university professor.

Nathan Azrin taught at Southern Illinois University and was the research director of Anna State Hospital between 1958 and 1980.

Nathan Azrin was born on November 26,1930, in Boston, Massachusetts, to parents Harold and Esther.

Nathan Azrin's parents owned and operated a small local grocery store, where Azrin and his siblings worked.

Nathan Azrin graduated from Boston University in 1951 with a BA and in 1952 with his MA.

In 1955 Nathan Azrin received his PhD in Psychology under the supervision of BF Skinner from Harvard University.

Nathan Azrin was then named a professor at Southern Illinois University and research director in the Illinois Department of Mental Health.

Nathan Azrin was a co-founder and president of the Midwestern Association for Behavior Analysis, and was president of the Association for Behavior Analysis International.

Nathan Azrin was a president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, and the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis.

Nathan Azrin is known as one of the founders of the behavior modification school of thought and Applied Behavior Analysis.

Nathan Azrin died on March 29,2013, in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Nathan Azrin was survived by his wife Victoria Besalel Azrin and four children.

In practice, Nathan Azrin provided plastic tokens to patients as a reward for certain behaviors, tokens that could be used for "gifts" such as entering the television room or operating the television itself.

Later studies by Nathan Azrin began to integrate medication-based help into the methodology.

Nathan Azrin developed Family Behavior Therapy for dealing with juvenile misbehavior and narcotics use, after receiving a 1989 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institute of Mental Health.

Nathan Azrin co-authored the book Treating Adolescent Substance Abuse Using Family Behavior Therapy: A Step-by-Step Approach with Brad Donohue, aimed at providing a model for clinicians to employ with clients, based on his research.

Nathan Azrin is developed his "time out" parenting technique as an alternative to corporal punishment.

Nathan Azrin's research included lab animal tests, such as incentivizing experiments with pigeons that produced the result that they are more likely to form a behavior if there is some reward involved rather than punishment.

Nathan Azrin was involved in early research into autism during the early 1960s as a post-doctoral researcher, as well as later in his career.

Nathan Azrin researched the concept of behavior reversal training, known as habit reversal, in order to treat patients with uncontrollable physical tics, trichotillomania, and other repetitive behavior disorders like stuttering or Tourette syndrome.

Nathan Azrin was named as one of three expert witnesses to review the program and findings, and defended the program as in line with the principles of behavioral psychology.

In 1975 Nathan Azrin published research that led to his establishing a system for unemployed persons to assist each other in job finding.

Nathan Azrin created The Job Club Counselor's Manual which showed how to employ a system utilizing a small group of people who assisted each other in their job search by having the leader provide job search information and using positive behavioral leadership by recording member's positive actions such as number of employer contacts made, applications submitted, and interviews obtained.

Nathan Azrin served on the editorial boards of seventeen peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, which he founded.

Nathan Azrin was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and a contributor to the Encyclopedia of Behavior Modification and Cognitive Behavior Therapy.

Nathan Azrin's work made him one of the most cited behavioral scientists in the world.

In 1975, Nathan Azrin was awarded the Distinguished Contribution for Applications in Psychology Award by the American Psychological Association.

In 1992 Nathan Azrin received the James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award from the Association of Psychological Sciences.

In 1997 Nathan Azrin received the lifetime achievement award from the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.

Nathan Azrin is the namesake of the Nathan H Azrin Distinguished Contribution to Applied Behavior Analysis Award given annually by the American Psychological Association.