Barry III, Herbert

Last name:  Barry III
Name:  Herbert

Herbert Barry, III is Emeritus Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy. He received a B.A. in Social Relations from Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the MS and Ph.D. degrees in Psychology from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. He has been a faculty member in the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy since 1963.

Dr. Barry’s pharmacological research was primarily in preclinical psychopharmacology, testing effects of various drugs on behavior of laboratory animals. He coauthored with Henrik Wallgren a two-volume book, summarizing scientific knowledge about alcohol effects and alcoholism (Amsterdam, Elsevier Publishing Company, 1970). His principal research specialty was assessments of the discriminative stimulus effects of drugs in laboratory animals. A behavioral technique enabled measurement of the animal’s choice of a response associated with a drug or the placebo condition, or with alternative drugs. Concurrently he conducted cross-cultural research, using ethnographic descriptions of child training and other customs in a world sample of diverse societies. He coauthored with Alice Schlegel a book “Adolescence: An Anthropological Inquiry” (New York: Free Press, 1991). He has an adjunct appointment as Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh. His current research includes comparisons between male and female first names, choices of fictional names by novelists, cultural attributes associated with important occupational participation by women, and personality development and expressions of the presidents of the United States.

Research Interests:

Analyses of attributes of personal names. Studies include differentiation between popular first names of males and females, differentiation of surnames from first names, attributes of first names in several languages, and determinants of choices of fictional names by several novelists. Inferring irrational in addition to rational sentiments of voters and political leaders. Preparing a proposal for a book "Private and Public Purposes: Each President from Washington to George W. Bush."

Surveying cultural variations in a world sample of societies. Using multiple regression and other statistical methods to identify cultural customs and child training practices that predict variations in a selected dependent variable, such as contribution by women to agriculture, low or high frequency of violent behavior, and presence or absence of a genital operation in painful adolescent initiation ceremonies.

Studying individuals who are extreme territorial accumulators or who suffer deprivation or loss of territorial ownership. Developing a questionnaire to measure and educate attitudes toward taxation of the value of unimproved land and other natural resources. Most government revenue currently is from taxing products of human enterprise and labor, including income, sales, capital gains, import tariffs, and the value of buildings.

Other survey research includes developing a questionnaire to measure sympathetic and intellectual empathic choices, compared with rational and emotional choices.