Harry Helson (November 9, 1898 - October 13, 1977) was an American psychologist and professor

of psychology[1] who is best known for his adaptation-level theory.

Helson developed the adaptation-level theory of psychology. This theory states that an individual's
basis of judgment of a stimulus is based on their prior experiences as well as their recollections of
how they perceived similar stimuli in the past.[7][8] It is a theory used to interpret psychological
findings, and it is still used today.[9]
Helson asserted that adaptation levels vary from person to person and in different situations.[10] The
adaptation-level theory can be applied to attitudes, sounds, light, and many other concepts, although
it began with Helson's experiments involving vision. Helson noticed that stimuli sometimes appeared
to be without color when they were in monochromatic lighting, and the way the stimuli was viewed
depended on the background. This finding led him to his recognition of how adaptation levels work in
vision.[3]
Psychologist Harry Helson (1898–1977) developed Adaptation-Level (AL) theory during the 1930s to the
1970s, while economics was being refined through ordinalism and expected utility theory. This essay
accounts for the process of transmission of AL theory from psychophysics to behavioral psychology and
eventually economics. It explains how the concept of adaptation reflectance, originally intended to explain
color vision, developed into an experimental approach that caught the attention of both psychologists and
economists working on welfare analysis and behavioral research. It also argues that the history of AL
theory—so far, absent from narratives about economics and psychology—is worth exploring in order to
gain a better understanding of the relationship between the two disciplines.

Research suggests that the stability of job satisfaction is partially the result of dispositions (J. J.
Connolly & C. Viswesvaran, 2000; C. Dormann & D. Zapf, 2001; T. A. Judge & J. E. Bono, 2001a; T.
A. Judge, D. Heller, & M. K. Mount, 2002). Opponent process theory (R. L. Solomon & J. D. Corbit,
1973, 1974) and adaptation-level theory (H. Helson, 1948) are alternative explanations of this
stability that explain how environmental effects on job satisfaction dissipate across time. On the
basis of an integration of these explanations, the authors propose that dispositions (a) influence
employees' equilibrium or adaptation level of job satisfaction, (b) influence employees' sensitivity to
workplace events, and (c) influence the speed at which job satisfaction returns to equilibrium after
one is exposed to a workplace event.