Larry Wrightsman: A Pioneer in Injecting Social-Psychological Knowledge Into the Legal System

Abstract

For over five decades, Larry Wrightsman has exemplified a remarkably productive social problems orientation in applying social-psychological knowledge, theory, and research findings to important areas of American society. His contributions to psychology as a writer, a teacher, a mentor, and a researcher, are vast. In all, he has authored almost 50 books. He was a pioneer in the emergence of “psychology and law” and has written numerous books that cover a wide spectrum of psychology-law issues, including the psychology of evidence and trial procedure, courtroom and jury issues, child witnesses, the rights of children, rape, confessions, trial consulting, forensic psychology, judicial decision making, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Larry Wrightsman’s prodigious output of books, book chapters, and research articles has made a most valuable contribution to psychology, particularly to the area of psychology and law. His fresh, lively, and unpretentious writing style, and his ability to search out interesting bits of information that highlight important concepts, are exceptional and valuable talents. Through his plethora of books, he is perhaps unique in the degree to which he has made both theoretical concepts and research findings in social psychology, and in psychology and law, come alive for several generations of students, colleagues, and interested laypersons.