Wolf, Montrose

The work of Montrose Wolf (1935–2004) had a significant impact on educational practice. His pioneering efforts in applied behavior analysis formed the foundation of current classroom management procedures, educational research design, and intervention methods for persons with antisocial behaviors, emotional disorders, and mental retardation.

Wolf was born on May 29, 1935, in Houston, Texas. He earned his doctorate in 1962 from Arizona State University. In that same year, he accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington Institute for Child Development, where he remained until 1965. In 1965, Dr. Wolf joined the Department of Human Development and Family Life at the University of Kansas, a position he held until his retirement in 2000. In 1996, he received the Father Flannigan Award for Service to Youth, joining such notable former awardees as Mother Teresa and Dr. Jonas Salk.

Wolf was one of the “founding fathers” (many professionals consider him the founder) of applied behavior analysis and the founding editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. His work, along with that of Don Baer, Todd Risley, and Vance Hall, brought behaviorism out of the laboratory and into a focus on solving significant human problems in applied settings. This focus was drawn from a foundation of [Page 1068](a) theories of learning that should guide research and practice, (b) the nature and types of data to be gathered, (c) the types of designs to be employed in structuring research activities, and (d) facilitation of the generalization of functional skills and behaviors to new environments and situations.

Wolf developed many intervention techniques still employed in educational settings today. These include “time out,” the “token economy,” and the “Good Behavior Game.” Wolf also developed and articulated the concept of social validity in research. In essence, social validity is a position that any research activity should address issues or problems of social importance. That is, it should address “real problems of real people.” Wolf felt that social validity constituted the foundation or “heart” of all meaningful research. In addition, Wolf was instrumental in the development of two of the major single-subject research designs. The reversal design and the multiple baseline design were both presented and explained by Wolf and his colleagues in 1968.

Wolf's work is significant in that it addresses both educational research and practice. Much of special education methodology is rooted in his research. In addition, classroom management in both regular and special education draw much of their practice from Wolf's research. His work provided the model for much of what is current practice in these fields.