|
The Laboratory for
Studies of Social Deviance
The Laboratory for the Studies of Social Deviance at Texas A&M
University is directed by Dr. Howard B. Kaplan. The laboratory
conducts large-scale studies of the causes and consequences of
drug abuse and other deviant adaptations to stress.
This work first began in 1971 when Dr. Kaplan conducted a study in which
his team of researchers interviewed half of all seventh grade
students in the Houston Independent School District, about 9,300
children, using self-administered questionaires. Since then he
has amassed an enourmous database of information by following the
original group through adolescence and into adulthood and then
following their children through adolescence and beyond.
Using this data, Dr. Kaplan and his colleagues
have explored the factors that lead people to live on the
margins of society, become criminals, and abuse drugs. Nearly
200 academic books, papers, and book chapters on social deviance
have resulted from the original study and other related inquiries.
About the Director
Dr. Howard Kaplan is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and
the Mary Thomas Marshall Professor of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M
University. He received his PhD from New York University in 1958 and
has devoted his career to the study of social psychology, deviant
behavior, social disorganization, and mental health.
Dr. Kaplan joined the Sociology Department in 1988 (coming from
the Baylor School of Medicine in Houston) and established The Laboratory for
Studies of Social Deviance at that time. In addition to directing
several ongoing grants and associated studies, he regularly teaches
sociology graduate seminars on social psychology and social deviance.
 Further Information
Email:
Contact Information
The Deviance Laboratory is located in Room 323 of the Academic
Building (just down the hall from the Sociology Department
main office) on the Texas A&M University main campus.
Dr. Howard Kaplan
Distinguished Professor
Department of Sociology
Mail Stop 4351
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-4351
979-845-5133 (Sociology Department)
979-845-2411 (Deviance Laboratory)
|
|
