Therapeutic Tuesday!

For those of you readers located in or around Hot Springs, Arkansas, you may remember the I.Q. Zoo as one of the long standing attractions which brought many tourists to the area. Also, you are probably aware of Henderson State University just 30 miles south of Hot Springs in Arkadelphia, Arkadelphia. What do these two locations have in common? Ms. Marian Breland Bailey.

For this Therapeutic Tuesday, I thought I would focus on a psychologist closer to home. Dr. Bailey began studying psychology because she thought it to be the "least painful science." She then worked closely with famous operant conditioning psychologist B. F. Skinner. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with her bachelor's degree.

After graduating, Marian married her husband Keller Breland and together they had three children, but they became well known among psychologists for their work detailing operant conditioning for animals, for setting up the I.Q. Zoo in Hot Springs to demonstrate the training, and for their work with improving animal training using more humane means of training. Sadly, Keller Breland died from a heart attack in 1965.

In 1976, she remarried to Robert Bailey, the first Naval Marine Mammal Training director, and she received her PhD from the University of Arkansas in 1978. Together, the Baileys were privileged to train animals from 140 different species. Dr. Bailey continued her work and taught at Henderson State University from 1981 to 1988 where she continued her work and even produced various videos with her husband such as Patient Like the Chipmunk and An Apple for the Student: How Behavioral Psychology Can Change the American Classroom.

Dr. Bailey's legacy is rich and continues to live on through her students and co-workers. Even now, in the psychology department at Henderson State University, there is an annual award given in her name. She will not be forgotten nor will her legacy in behaviorism (All information and quotes via Wikipedia).