Hildegard Therese Himmelweit (née Litthauer; 1918–1989) was a German social psychologist who had a major influence on the development of the discipline in Britain.

Biography

Hilde was born in Berlin in 1918. Her father, Dr Siegfried Litthauer, was a chemist and industrialist. She went to

Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicent ...

, Cambridge (1937-1942). She married Freddy Himmelweit. She received her PhD under

Hans Eysenck Hans Jürgen Eysenck (; 4 March 1916 – 4 September 1997) was a German-born British psychologist who spent his professional career in Great Britain. He is best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, although he worked on other ...

at the

Institute of Psychiatry The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a research institution dedicated to discovering what causes mental illness and diseases of the brain. In addition, its aim is to help identify new treatments for them and ways ...

. She taught at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

from 1948–83. From 1964 she was the first Professor of Social Psychology in Britain, founding LSE's social psychology department (now named the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science) and, in effect, establishing the discipline on the university curriculum. She retired in 1983 and died of cancer in 1989.

Research

She greatly enhanced our understanding of the contemporary world through her research, in particular through two studies. As director of the

Nuffield Foundation The Nuffield Foundation is a charitable trust established in 1943 by William Morris, Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors Ltd. It aims to improve social well-being by funding research and innovation projects in education and social pol ...

television inquiry from 1954-58 she contributed to the understanding of television's impact in society, the subsequent book ''Television and the Child'' (1958) establishing her reputation in Europe and North America. Her work in the field of

political psychology Political psychology is an interdisciplinary academic field, dedicated to understanding politics, politicians and political behavior from a psychological perspective, and psychological processes using socio-political perspectives. The relations ...

greatly strengthened the understanding of human decision-making by voters as she and her team studied a group of young people over a 15-year period. The study was published as ''How Voters Decide'' in 1981. Hilde Himmelweit was also highly influential in advocating a societal psychology, on which topic she co-edited a volume with George Gaskell, as well as in the establishment and development of the theory of

social representations Social representations are a system of values, ideas, metaphors, beliefs, and practices that serve to establish social order, orient participants and enable communication among the members of groups and communities. Social representation theory is ...

Major publications

* Himmelweit, H.T., Oppenheim, A.N., & Vince, P. (1958). ''Television and the child: an empirical study of the effect of television on the young''. London: Published for the Nuffield Foundation by Oxford University Press. * Himmelweit, H.T., Humphreys, P., & Jaeger, M. (1985). ''How voters decide: a model of vote choice based on a special longitudinal study extending over fifteen years and the British election surveys of 1970-1983''. (Revised and updated edition). Milton Keynes: Open University Press. * Himmelweit, H.T., & Gaskell, G. (Eds). (1990). ''Societal Psychology: Implications and scope''. London: Sage Publications.

Awards

* 1976 - Hon DSc, Open University * 1981 - Nevitt Sanford Award,

International Society of Political Psychology The International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP) is an interdisciplinary not-for-profit organization, representing all fields of enquiry involved with the exploration of relationships between both psychological and political processes and ...

References

1918 births 1989 deaths Social psychologists Academics of the London School of Economics Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Alumni of King's College London {{UK-psychologist-stub