Harold Kelley

Harold Kelley (February 16, 1921, Boise, Idaho – January 29, 2003, Malibu, California) was an American social psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Kelley graduated in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and obtained his Ph.D. from MIT. He moved to UCLA in 1961.

He liked to consider his main contributions as being his work on the social psychology of personal relationships. However, he is perhaps best known for his contributions to attribution theory. He published important papers on attribution theory from 1967-1973 in U.S. social psychology journals.

His most important collaboration was with John Thibaut, with whom he developed social exchange theory.

Kelley continued important innovations and leadership in several other areas. His research and theory on the processes and manner that we attribute causality resulted in a series of publications and a flurry of activity by many social psychologists. While exploring the conceptualizations and the possible “real life” applications of interdependence theory and attribution theory, Kelley began examining the interactions and perceptions of young couples in harmony and conflict, and the ways in which they negotiated and attempted to resolve conflicts. This work led him to elaborate both attribution and interdependence theories in the context of close relationships, resulting in the important and pioneering 1979 book, Personal Relationships. A subsequent co-authored volume (Close Relationships, Kelley et al., 1983) encouraged the examination of topics long ignored in social psychology such as attraction, love, commitment, power and conflict in relationships, etc., and gave birth to a new, active International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships.

Well after his retirement, Kelley brought together a group of leading researchers in this new field to tackle an ambitious project – the creation of a taxonomy of prototypical social situations derived abstractly from theoretically distinct patterns of interdependence. This six-year project culminated in An Atlas of Interpersonal Situations (Kelley et al., 2003).

Interpersonal Relationship definition Based on Kelley et al. (1983) study, an operational definition of a close interpersonal relationship is defined as "close relationship is one of strong, frequent and diverse interdependence that lasts over a considerable period of time".

Kelley formalized the work of Fritz Heider. He claimed that ordinary individuals and scientists often were similarly accurate in making causal inferences.

Kelley's view of the attribution theory assumes that the attributions we make are, for the most part, accurate and logical. There are three main aspects of his view: 1) Consistency: "Is the behavior consistent across most people in the given situation?" 2) Distinctiveness: "Does the behavior vary across different situations?" and 3) Consensus: "Do most people engage in this behavior in this situation?"