Gustav Jahoda
Biographic Data
| ID | 3592230 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gustav Jahoda |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gustav |
| FAMILY NAME | Jahoda |
| SIGNATURE | JAHODA G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Strathclyde |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 70 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 319 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 70 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1954 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
On the rise and decline of ‘indigenous psychology’
The origins of ‘indigenous psychology’ go back mainly to Asia during the 1990s. Its declared objective is to arrive at psychologies which, unlike the American mainstream, are adapted to the needs of particular cultures/countries. The literature dealing with it, including both journals and books, is critically surveyed. Accounts are provided of the ways in which specific topics are treated, such as: definitions of ‘Indigenous psychology’; its rela…
Seventy years of social psychology: A cultural and personal critique
This paper traces some salient aspects of my research career, focusing largely on work in West Africa. From this lessons are drawn about the shortcomings of social psychology, especially in its laboratory version. It tends to tacitly ignore the effects of cultural influences, assuming that its findings are universally valid. Studies are mainly conducted with adults, generally college students, who are unrepresentative even of the general populati…
On relations between ethnology and psychology in historical context
Ever since records began, accounts of other peoples and their institutions and customs have included comments about their mental characteristics. The present article traces this feature from the 18 th century to roughly the First World War, with a brief sketch of more recent developments. For most of this period two contrasting positions prevailed: the dominant one attributed human differences to ‘race’, while the other one explained them in term…
Theodor Waitz on Psychic Unity
Critical reflections on some recent definitions of “culture”
At the outset the historical background of attempts to define “culture” is briefly sketched. Then the definitions found in cross-cultural texts published between 2009 and 2011 are roughly divided into three categories according to where they locate “culture”, and whether they present single or multiple definitions. Each definition is critically examined, as are the relationships between them, and it is shown that several of the definitions are lo…
Critical Comments on Experimental, Discursive, and General Social Psychology
The historical background of the contrasting traditions of experimental and discursive social psychologies is outlined, and two illustrative experimental and discursive studies are described in detail and critically scrutinised. Among the major weaknesses of the experimental approach is an increasing tendency towards an a‐social computer‐mediated procedure and a decontextualised setting. While experimental methods and results are clearly set out,…
Commentary
Commentaries| January 08 2010 Commentary Subject Area: Psychiatry and Psychology , Women's and Children's Health Gustav Jahoda Gustav Jahoda University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Human Development (1990) 33 (2-3): 214–216. https://doi.org/10.1159/000276516 Article history Published Online: January 08 2010 Content Tools Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Vid…
The Climate for and Status of Cross-Cultural Psychology in the 1960s
Intra-European Racism in Nineteenth-Century Anthropology
Nowadays the term "racism" is usually applied in the context of relationships between Europeans and non‐European "others". During the nineteenth century scientific ideas about innate human differences were also applied extensively to various European populations. This was partly due to a category confusion whereby nations came to be regarded as biologically distinct. The origins of "scientific" racism were connected with the use of race as an exp…
Anthropologist and "Native" in Early Twentieth Century New Guinea: Malinowski and Thurnwald
Malinowski, an anglicized Pole and Thurnwald, a German, were in their different ways pioneers of anthropological fieldwork. Both men kept diaries in which they candidly recorded their experiences, Thurnwald’s remaining unpublished. These diaries, unlike retrospective and sanitized accounts, reveal their attitudes and behaviours towards two main categories of “natives”: the “boys” they employed, and the “savages” who were the object of their resea…
Johann Friedrich Herbart: Urvater of social psychology
Herbart’s attempts to apply psychology to society receive scant mention in English-language histories of psychology. In Germany, however, Herbart has long been regarded as the founder of social psychology. The background of his life and work is sketched, and the gradual extension of his individual psychology towards the social is traced. Although he did not build a coherent system, his approach was novel and several of his original ideas anticipa…
Theodor Lipps and the shift from ?sympathy? to ?empathy
In the course of extensive philosophical debates on aesthetics in nineteenth-century Germany, Robert Vischer introduced the concept of Einfühlung in relation to art. Theodor Lipps subsequently extended it from art to visual illusions and interpersonal understanding. While Lipps had regarded Einfühlung as basically similar to the old notion of sympathy, Edward Titchener in America believed it had a different meaning. Hence, he coined the term empa…
Between Culture and Biology: Perspectives on Ontogenetic Development
Between Culture and Biology breaks away from the traditional nature/nurture dialectic and brings together biological, psychological and cultural perspectives on development. In this thought-provoking book, the argument is put forward that the biological bases of behaviour and cultural context should be approached in an integrated fashion to properly understand ontogenetic development and that both the cultural and biological demain provide constr…
The ghosts in the meme machine
The notion of `memes' as replicators similar to genes, but concerned with cultural units, was put forward by Dawkins (1976). Blackmore (1999) used this notion to elaborate an ambitious theory designed to account for numerous aspects of human evolution and psychology. Her theory is based on the human capacity for imitation, and although the operation of the `memes' is said to be purely mechanical, the figurative language used implies that their `a…
A reply to Susan Blackmore
A Reply to Susan Blackmore
Reflections of a "Pre-Nominal" Cross-Cultural Psychologist
The beginning of my story dates back almost half a century, and can be viewed in the light of chaos theory - you know, the beating of a butterfly wing in Brazil results in a storm across the Atlantic. In my case it was the invasion of the body of a colleague by a virus that resulted in me, rather than him, being asked to look after a visitor from New Zealand. I was much impressed when he told me that to become a good social scientist one ought to…
Beyond Stereotypes
Valsiner (2000) sketched a possible semiotic analysis of how people respond to Others, and the present paper seeks to modify and expand his original scheme slightly. The more usual 'stereotype' approach to this issue is critically examined in historical context and current practice. It is shown to be largely descriptive at the collective level, and to focus on cognitive mechanisms rather than content at the individual one. By contrast, semiotic p…
Piaget and Lévy-Bruhl
Levy-Bruhl exerted a powerful influence, seldom considered, on Piaget. The Levy-Bruhlian thesis of a "pre-logical mentality" characterized by "mystical participation" is outlined, together with its initial reception. The first evidence of Piaget's interest in it dates from 1920, and when he began his studies of children's thinking he compared it with that of 'primitives," also adopting Levy-Bruhl's concept of "participation." By 1928 Piaget had e…
Piaget and Lévy-Bruhl
"Ordinary Germans" before Hitler: A Critique of the Goldhagen Thesis
July 01 1998 “Ordinary Germans” before Hitler: A Critique of the Goldhagen Thesis Gustav Jahoda Gustav Jahoda Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Strathclyde Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Gustav Jahoda Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Strathclyde Online ISSN: 1530-9169 Print ISSN: 0022-1953 © 1998 Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the editors of…
The Ancestry of a Model
After a brief initial consideration of historical aspects of the concept of 'culture', the focus is on the eco-cultural model originally developed by Berry (1976) and subsequently incorporated in the text by Berry, Poortinga, Segall and Dasen (1992). It is shown that several of the basic ideas underlying the model, notably those relating mind and behaviour to eco-cultural settings, have been frequently discussed over several centuries. From the E…
Cognitive Aspects of Religious Symbolism
The Colour of a Chameleon: Perspectives on Concepts of Culture
Dessins primitifs, dessins d'enfants et la question de l'évolution
Jahoda Gustav, Dupuis Annie, Lenclud Gérard. Dessins primitifs, dessins d'enfants et la question de l'évolution. In: Gradhiva : revue d'histoire et d'archives de l'anthropologie, n°10, 1991. pp. 60-70
The Development of Children's Ideas About Country and Nationality: Part I: The Conceptual Framework
A random sample of children aged 6-11 in four Glasgow schools was interviewed and tested, two situated in middle-class and two in working-class districts. The formation of concepts relating the series of units Glasgow-Scotland-Britain is traced in terms of both verbal formulation and spatial representation. The difficulty for younger children of such concepts as 'town' and 'country' is demonstrated. The emergence of national identification is des…
Critical notes and reflections on 'social representations
Moscovici has ushered in the 'era of social representations widely welcomed as a European alternative to what are increasingly regarded as the shortcomings of mainline American social psychology. The rapid and enthusiastic adoption by many psychologists of Moscovici's theoretical approach has not so far evoked a great deal of critical appraisal of the ideas he put forward. The present paper seeks to make a start in jilling this gap by an examinat…
The construction of economic reality by some Glaswegian children
Studied the development of the inderstanding of elementary economic systems in 120 working class children of both sexes aged between 6 and 12. Methods employed included a procedure whereby children had to detect absurdities, a task in which the children played the role of shopkeeper, and semi‐structured interviews. It was shown that the youngest children already had the basic idea of the wage‐system, i.e. selling one's labour, but were confused a…
Theodor Lipps and the shift from ?sympathy? to ?empathy
In the course of extensive philosophical debates on aesthetics in nineteenth-century Germany, Robert Vischer introduced the concept of Einfühlung in relation to art. Theodor Lipps subsequently extended it from art to visual illusions and interpersonal understanding. While Lipps had regarded Einfühlung as basically similar to the old notion of sympathy, Edward Titchener in America believed it had a different meaning. Hence, he coined the term empa…
Supernatural Beliefs and Changing Cognitive Structures among Ghanaian University Students
Personality Assessment: A Critical Survey
Do We Need a Concept of Culture
Rohner's analysis of the concept of culture is critically examined, considering in particular the distinction drawn between culture and social system. His view is contrasted with that of Segall, who regards the concept of "culture" as redundant for cross-cultural psychology. It is argued that neither of these positions is adequate, and suggestions are made for ways out of the dilemma
Ethnic identity and preferences among Asian immigrant children in Glasgow: A replicated study
The aim of first study, carried out by an English investigator, was to assess the extent to which Asian immigrant children had moved away from the values of their culture of origin. For this purpose some novel techniques were employed, including an identikit task and one focusing on Scottish versus Asian names. The outcome suggested that the children had been very powerfully influenced by the values of the host community. Since it was suspected t…
Intra-European Racism in Nineteenth-Century Anthropology
Nowadays the term "racism" is usually applied in the context of relationships between Europeans and non‐European "others". During the nineteenth century scientific ideas about innate human differences were also applied extensively to various European populations. This was partly due to a category confusion whereby nations came to be regarded as biologically distinct. The origins of "scientific" racism were connected with the use of race as an exp…
Geometric Illusions and Environment: A Study in Ghana
Segall, Campbell & Herskovits (1963, 1966) put forward the view that the Müller-Lyer illusion is a function of rectangularity in the environment, and that the horizontal-vertical one depends on openness of terrain. Existing contrasts in these two variables in Ghana were used in an attempt to investigate the hypotheses. A total of 213 illiterate subjects were tested, and 41 subjects in Britain. A significant overall difference in the expected dire…
Psychology and Anthropology: A Psychological Perspective
Seventy years of social psychology: A cultural and personal critique
This paper traces some salient aspects of my research career, focusing largely on work in West Africa. From this lessons are drawn about the shortcomings of social psychology, especially in its laboratory version. It tends to tacitly ignore the effects of cultural influences, assuming that its findings are universally valid. Studies are mainly conducted with adults, generally college students, who are unrepresentative even of the general populati…
Johann Friedrich Herbart: Urvater of social psychology
Herbart’s attempts to apply psychology to society receive scant mention in English-language histories of psychology. In Germany, however, Herbart has long been regarded as the founder of social psychology. The background of his life and work is sketched, and the gradual extension of his individual psychology towards the social is traced. Although he did not build a coherent system, his approach was novel and several of his original ideas anticipa…
Nature, culture and social psychology
It is proposed that ideas about ‘nature’ and ‘culture’, key concepts in structural anthropology, have an important bearing on assumptions underlying rival theoretical approaches in social psychology. Experimental social psychologists tend to make the tacit assumption that they are dealing only with nature, while ethogenists like Harré explicitly concentrate on culture and treat nature as irrelevant. Others like Tajfel and Moscovici occupy a middl…
Development of the Perception of Social Differences in Children From 6 to 10
A specially devised pictorial technique to test the ability to perceive social differences, requiring a minimum of verbal instruction, was applied to a sample of 179 children systematically distributed according to age, sex and social status of parents. A performance test of intelligence and a vocabulary scale were also administered.An expected improvement with age was found with the social perception test, and there were significant sex and stat…
Love, Marriage, and Social Change: Letters to the Advice Column of a West African Newspaper
Opening ParagraphThe effects of major changes in the social system on the mental state of individuals have been the subject of a recent controversy. Miss Ward (1956), in a paper discussing the significance of an alleged increase in the number of witch-finding cults in Ashanti, argued that this can be taken as evidence of a widespread rise in the general level of anxiety resulting from rapid structural changes. In a subsequent rejoinder Goody (195…
The Social Background of a West African Student Population: I
In the above Table paternal grandparents and maternal grandparents have been combined as the patterns are very similar. Out of 476 pairs of granflparents for whom information was available, 329 or nearly 70 per cent werf totally illiterate; the standard of literacy was purposely kept very low, so that anybody who had attended school at all, for however short a period, was reckoned literate. By the same standard about s5 per cent of the parents (i…
Political attitudes and judgments of other people
Critical Comments on Experimental, Discursive, and General Social Psychology
The historical background of the contrasting traditions of experimental and discursive social psychologies is outlined, and two illustrative experimental and discursive studies are described in detail and critically scrutinised. Among the major weaknesses of the experimental approach is an increasing tendency towards an a‐social computer‐mediated procedure and a decontextualised setting. While experimental methods and results are clearly set out,…
The ghosts in the meme machine
The notion of `memes' as replicators similar to genes, but concerned with cultural units, was put forward by Dawkins (1976). Blackmore (1999) used this notion to elaborate an ambitious theory designed to account for numerous aspects of human evolution and psychology. Her theory is based on the human capacity for imitation, and although the operation of the `memes' is said to be purely mechanical, the figurative language used implies that their `a…
On the nature of difficulties in spatial-perceptual tasks: Ethnic and sex differences
The common claim that Africans exhibit a general weakness in handling spatial relationships is questioned, as is that of a general male superiority. The aim of the study was to identify some of the specific areas in which ethnic and sex differences may be located. A sample of 72 Ghanaian children evenly divided according to sex and early, middle and later stages of primary schooling were administered a series of tasks adapted from Piaget & Inheld…
Assessment of abstract behavior in a non-Western culture
Sex and ethnic differences on a spatial-perceptual task: Some hypotheses tested
The most prevalent version of the environmental hypothesis, by Sherman (1967), would predict a sex difference in spatial performance in Scotland but not in Ghana. With regard to the particular task used, namely 3D mental rotation, the same prediction would arise on the basis of Serpell's (1979) 'specific experience' hypothesis. Subjects were 40 boys and 40 girls in both Ghana and Scotland, equated for years of education. The results showed a sex …
Cross-cultural study of factors influencing orientation errors in the reproduction of Kohs-type figures
The aim of the study was to examine pattern difficulty as a general factor influencing orientation errors, and to explore psychological differentiation and task perception as variables accounting for cross-cultural differences. Samples of 30 boys and 30 girls in Ghana and Scotland were tested with a specially devised apparatus under two treatment conditions. Results confirmed the effect of pattern difficulty, but the extent of psychological diffe…
Pictorial Depth Perception: A Developmental Study
Children between 4 and 10 years participated in a study of their ability to discriminate pictorially represented depth. Stimuli comprised pictures in which depth cues were systematically manipulated. Subjects were required to construct three-dimensional models representing the size and spatial relationships between figures in the pictures. Models were scored for size and spatial accuracy. Size accuracy, relatively high at 4 years, increased with …
The Social Background of a West African Student Population: I
In the above Table paternal grandparents and maternal grandparents have been combined as the patterns are very similar. Out of 476 pairs of granflparents for whom information was available, 329 or nearly 70 per cent werf totally illiterate; the standard of literacy was purposely kept very low, so that anybody who had attended school at all, for however short a period, was reckoned literate. By the same standard about s5 per cent of the parents (i…
Political attitudes and judgments of other people
The Social Background of a West African Student Population: Ii
Assessment of abstract behavior in a non-Western culture
Nationality Preferences and National Stereotypes in Ghana before Independence
The primary aim of the study was to discover, first, the extent to which Africans are able to differentiate among the various nationalities of whites and, second, how they felt about each of those they knew. Owing to the fact that the vernacular terms for 'white man' or 'European' have a broader meaning than their English counterparts, a wider coverage of nationalities was obtained; and as it turned out, this unearned increment considerably enhan…
Development of the Perception of Social Differences in Children From 6 to 10
A specially devised pictorial technique to test the ability to perceive social differences, requiring a minimum of verbal instruction, was applied to a sample of 179 children systematically distributed according to age, sex and social status of parents. A performance test of intelligence and a vocabulary scale were also administered.An expected improvement with age was found with the social perception test, and there were significant sex and stat…
Love, Marriage, and Social Change: Letters to the Advice Column of a West African Newspaper
Opening ParagraphThe effects of major changes in the social system on the mental state of individuals have been the subject of a recent controversy. Miss Ward (1956), in a paper discussing the significance of an alleged increase in the number of witch-finding cults in Ashanti, argued that this can be taken as evidence of a widespread rise in the general level of anxiety resulting from rapid structural changes. In a subsequent rejoinder Goody (195…
Search for Security. By M. J. Field. London: Faber, 1960. Pp. 478. 42 s .
Traditional Healers and Other Institutions Concerned With Mental Illness in Ghana
White Man: A Study of the Attitudes of Africans to Europeans in Ghana before Independence
White Man: A Study of the Attitudes of Africans to Europeans in Ghana before Independence White Man: A Study of the Attitudes of Africans to Europeans in Ghana before Independence. By Gustav Jahoda. London, New York, Accra, Oxford University Press for the Institute of Race Relations, 1961. xii+144 pp. Bibliog. 21s. H. V. L. S. H. V. L. S. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 37, Is…
White Man: A Study of the Attitudes of Africans to Europeans in Ghana before Independence
Aspects of Westernization: A Study of Adult-Class Students in Ghana: I
Aspects of Westernization: A Study of Adult-Class Students in Ghana: II
r NHERE is an extensive literature concerning changes in social structure and economic conditions in Africa,2 but apart from the work of Biesheuvel3 and Doob,4 systematic information about beliefs and attitudes seems to be scarce. The aim of this study, undertaken in I955, was to fill this gap for one particular area. An attempt was made to assess the balance of traditional versus western values in some crucial areas of life, for one section of t…
L'Enfant Mukongo. Orientations de base du systeme educatif et developpement de la personnalite
Social Structure and Personality. A Casebook
The Development of Children's Ideas About Country and Nationality: Part I: The Conceptual Framework
A random sample of children aged 6-11 in four Glasgow schools was interviewed and tested, two situated in middle-class and two in working-class districts. The formation of concepts relating the series of units Glasgow-Scotland-Britain is traced in terms of both verbal formulation and spatial representation. The difficulty for younger children of such concepts as 'town' and 'country' is demonstrated. The emergence of national identification is des…
Social Class Differentials in Vocabulary Expansion
Socio‐economic status differences in performance on intelligence and other cognitive tests are among the most firmly established generalisations in psychological research, though their causal interpretation remains a focus of lively controversy (Anastasi, 1960). There is a considerable weight of evidence indicating that the verbal inferiority of working class children may account in part for the differences (Bernstein, 1961). The existence of a v…
Personality Assessment: A Critical Survey
Geometric Illusions and Environment: A Study in Ghana
Segall, Campbell & Herskovits (1963, 1966) put forward the view that the Müller-Lyer illusion is a function of rectangularity in the environment, and that the horizontal-vertical one depends on openness of terrain. Existing contrasts in these two variables in Ghana were used in an attempt to investigate the hypotheses. A total of 213 illiterate subjects were tested, and 41 subjects in Britain. A significant overall difference in the expected dire…
Education and Social Change in Ghana
Awareness of Ethnic Differences in Young Children: Proposals for a British Study
The paper presents an investigation into ethnic choice among young children in London-the first of its kind in Britain. The appearance and rapid growth of Negro communities in the late 1950s in some areas provided the opportunity to start such a research, and the tensions which soon arose made it a matter of obligation. (Author
Les recherches pédagogiques en Afrique
Some Research Problems in African Education
Topics include: Child rearing; cognitive development and language; 'superstitious' beliefs; teachers and pupils
Cross-cultural Use of the Perceptual Maze Test
Supernatural Beliefs and Changing Cognitive Structures among Ghanaian University Students
Psychology (54 works) · Sociology (37 works) · Social Psychology (24 works) · Computer Science (18 works) · Epistemology (18 works) · Philosophy (17 works) · Political science (15 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology (11 works) · Cognition (11 works)