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Joseph Gaither Pratt (1910–1979) was an American psychologist who specialized in the field of parapsychology. Among his research interests were extrasensory perception, psychokinesis, mediumship, poltergeists and psi. Much of Pratt's research was conducted while he was associated with J. B. Rhine's Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University (1932-1964), and he also conducted research while associated with Columbia University (1935-1937), under Gardner Murphy, and the University of Virginia (1964-1975). Pratt was co-experimenter in the Pearce-Pratt and Pratt-Woodruff tests that are considered by some parapsychologists to have provided evidence for psi, though critics discovered flaws in the experiments.〔Hansel, C. E. M. (1980). ''ESP and Parapsychology: A Critical Re-Evaluation''. Prometheus Books. pp. 125-140〕〔Stenger, Victor J. (1990). ''Physics and Psychics: The Search for a World Beyond the Senses''. Prometheus Books. pp. 171-174〕 He was the principal author of the publication ''Extrasensory Perception After Sixty Years'' (1940).〔Pratt, J. G., Rhine, J. B., Smith, B. M., Stuart, C. E., & Greenwood, J. A. (1940). ''Extra-Sensory Perception after Sixty Years''. New York, NY, US: Henry Holt.〕 He was the principal author of an article in the journal ''Nature'' that offered a statistical summary of almost a decade of experiments with the selected participant, Pavel Stepanek. ==Biography== J. G. Pratt was born on August 31, 1910,〔Duke University Libraries. (【引用サイトリンク】title=Inventory of the J. Gaither Pratt Papers, 1963 )〕 at Winston-Salem in the Piedmont section of North Carolina, the fourth among 10 children of a large farming family. From an early age, he planned to become a Methodist minister. He commenced his university studies in 1928 at Trinity College, Durham, in what was to become Duke University's School of Religion, and from which he obtained his B.A. in 1931. Pratt came to realize that "my mind was not suited to a profession in which the ''answers'' to the great questions regarding man and his relation to the universe are largely taken on faith". Accordingly, in 1932, he entered Duke's Department of Psychology, from which he graduated with a M.A. in 1933, and a Ph.D. in 1936. His doctoral thesis was concerned with the psychology of learning, as informed by his experiments on white rats.〔Pleasants, H. (Ed.) (1964). ''Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology''. New York, NY, US: Helix.〕 Pratt spent two of his early academic years (1935-1937) at Columbia University, upon the invitation of Gardner Murphy to there seek to replicate the results of forced-choice ESP experiments, as offered by J. B. Rhine at Duke University. From 1937, Pratt worked as Research Associate, and then as Assistant Director, of the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University, under Rhine. A brief hiatus to his research occurred from 1942 to 1946, while he served in the U.S. Navy. Pratt continued as Assistant Director of the Parapsychology Laboratory until, in 1964, Rhine reorganized the Laboratory outside of Duke University, and within his own Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man. From this point onwards, Pratt maintained a professional relationship with the University of Virginia.〔(Gale Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology: Joseph Gaither Pratt )〕 Pratt was President of the Parapsychological Association in 1960. In 1970, together with Jürgen Keil, of the University of Tasmania, he was awarded the Parapsychology Laboratory's McDougall award for their research with the selected participant Pavel Stepanek. His later years were somewhat concerned by attentions to the claims of fraud against his one-time research associate, S. G. Soal. Pratt died on November 3, 1979. His archives are stored at Duke University, and within the historical collections section of the medical library at the University of Virginia. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joseph Gaither Pratt」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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