Joseph E. McGrath

Joseph E. McGrath (July 17, 1927 – April 1, 2007) was an American social psychologist, known for his work on small groups, time, stress, and research methods and for his excellence in mentoring graduate students.

McGrath was born in DuBois, Pennsylvania, the last child of six. He served the U.S. Army from 1945 to 1946. He received a B.S. and an M.A. in Psychology at the in 1950 and 1951, respectively.

He married Marion Freitag in 1952. They had four children: Robert (born 1954), William (born 1955), James (born 1958), and Janet (born 1959). In 1955 McGrath completed a Ph.D. in Social Psychology at the University of Michigan with thesis adviser Theodore M. Newcomb. Upon graduation, McGrath became research scientist and project director of Psychological Research Associates in Arlington Virginia for two years, and then vice president of Human Sciences Research, Inc. in McLean Virginia for three years. Wishing to return to basic research and academia, in 1960 McGrath accepted a visiting position in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois as research assistant professor and associate director of the Group Effectiveness Laboratory. In 1962 he received a tenure track appointment there as assistant professor. He was tenured as an associate professor in 1964 and promoted to full professor in 1966. McGrath served as head of the Psychology Department for five years, from 1971 to 1976. He became a professor emeritus in 1997 and remained active in his research and collaborations until his death in 2007.

McGrath taught several courses popular among Ph.D. students at the University of Illinois. These included the introductory course, Research Methods in Social Psychology, taken by generations of graduate students; an introductory course to Research Topics in Social Psychology; a recurring seminar on Small Groups; a Professional Problems seminar in which students learned to write grant proposals, develop career strategies, review papers for journals, respond to reviews, and collaborate; a Post Positivism seminar exploring the underlying assumptions of "normal" science and alternative assumptions, values, and methods; and a seminar dedicated to Feminist Scholarship in Social Psychology.

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