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Jan Strelau (born 30 May 1931 in
Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...
; died 4 August 2020 in
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...
) was a
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how ...
best known for his studies on
temperament In psychology, temperament broadly refers to consistent individual differences in behavior that are biologically based and are relatively independent of learning, system of values and attitudes. Some researchers point to association of temperam ...
. He was professor of psychology at
Warsaw University The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...
from 1968 to 2001 and was since 2001 professor at
Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities , latin_name = , former_names = Szkoła Wyższa Psychologii Społecznej , president = , established = 1996 , type = Private , founder = Piotr Voelkel, Andrzej Eliasz, Zbigniew Pietrasiński and Janusz Reykowski , rector = Associate Prof ...
, where he took the positions of Vice-rector for Research and International Affairs (2002–2010), Vice-rector for Research (2010–2012), and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees (2012–2016).


Research

His research concentrated for several decades on
temperament In psychology, temperament broadly refers to consistent individual differences in behavior that are biologically based and are relatively independent of learning, system of values and attitudes. Some researchers point to association of temperam ...
and its functional significance in human adaptation, especially under extreme conditions (stressors) and as a factor influencing behavior disorders. He transferred
Ivan Pavlov Ivan Petrovich Pavlov ( rus, Ива́н Петро́вич Па́влов, , p=ɪˈvan pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈpavləf, a=Ru-Ivan_Petrovich_Pavlov.ogg; 27 February 1936), was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist, psychologist and physiol ...
’s concepts of higher
nervous system In Biology, biology, the nervous system is the Complex system, highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its Behavior, actions and Sense, sensory information by transmitting action potential, signals to and from different parts of its ...
properties such as strength of excitation, strength of inhibition and mobility of nervous processes into psychological constructs (traits) to be measured since the 1970s by the Strelau Temperament Inventory (STI) and beginning from 1999 by the Pavlovian Temperament Survey (PTS) – an inventory constructed by Strelau, Angleitner and Newberry. Both inventories have been adapted to over a dozen language versions. Strelau, in cooperation with Alois Angleitner from the
University of Bielefeld Bielefeld University (german: Universität Bielefeld) is a university in Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969, it is one of the country's newer universities, and considers itself a "reform" university, following a different style of organization a ...
, was the first researcher who introduced behavior genetic studies in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
, extended during the last decade by one of his disciples, Włodzimierz Oniszczenko, and by Wojciech Dragan to
molecular genetics Molecular genetics is a sub-field of biology that addresses how differences in the structures or expression of DNA molecules manifests as variation among organisms. Molecular genetics often applies an "investigative approach" to determine the ...
centered on studying the genetic background of
temperament In psychology, temperament broadly refers to consistent individual differences in behavior that are biologically based and are relatively independent of learning, system of values and attitudes. Some researchers point to association of temperam ...
traits as defined by RTT. Strelau was the founder and head of the Department of Psychology of Individual Differences and of the Interdisciplinary Center for Behavior-Genetic Research at
Warsaw University The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...
. He has been first president of the European Association of Personality Psychology and president of the
International Society for the Study of Individual Differences The International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID) is a scientific society founded in 1983. According to its by-laws, the Society exists to "foster research on individual differences in temperament, intelligence, attitudes a ...
. He was Vice-president of the International Union of Psychological Science. Strelau was born in the
Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (german: Freie Stadt Danzig; pl, Wolne Miasto Gdańsk; csb, Wòlny Gard Gduńsk) was a city-state under the protection of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gda ...
, now
Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...
. He was a member of the
Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...
,
Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...
and foreign member of the
Finnish Academy of Sciences The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters ( Finnish ''Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia''; Latin ''Academia Scientiarum Fennica'') is a Finnish learned society. It was founded in 1908 and is thus the second oldest academy in Finland. The oldest is the ...
. He gained
honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad ho ...
s (Dr.h.c.) of
University of Gdańsk The University of Gdańsk ( pl, Uniwersytet Gdański) is a public university, public research university located in Gdańsk, Poland. It is one of the top 10 universities in Poland and is also an important centre for the studies of the Kashubian la ...
,
University of Poznań A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
and State University of Humanistic Sciences in Moscow. In 2000 he was awarded the
Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science The Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science () is the most prestigious scientific award in Poland given every year from 1992 by a non-governmental non-profit Polish organization, Foundation for Polish Science (). The prize is widely regarded ...
(regarded as the “Polish Nobel Prize”). In 2011, he received the Commander's Cross of the
Order of Polonia Restituta , image=Polonia Restituta - Commander's Cross pre-1939 w rib.jpg , image_size=200px , caption=Commander's Cross of Polonia Restituta , presenter = the President of Poland , country = , type=Five classes , eligibility=All , awar ...
. He died in Warsaw, aged 89.


Writing

Strelau was the author of the Regulative Theory of Temperament (RTT) that concentrates on formal aspects of behavior, comprising energetic and temporal characteristics composed of such traits as: sensory sensitivity, emotional reactivity, endurance and activity (energetic aspect), briskness and perseverance (temporal combustion). The Formal Characteristics of Behavior – Temperament Inventory (FCB-TI), developed by Strelau and Bogdan Zawadzki and adapted to many language versions allows for measuring these traits. A lot of
empirical evidence Empirical evidence for a proposition is evidence, i.e. what supports or counters this proposition, that is constituted by or accessible to sense experience or experimental procedure. Empirical evidence is of central importance to the sciences ...
has been collected by Strelau and his collaborators demonstrating that heritability explains about 40 percent of the variance in RTT
temperament In psychology, temperament broadly refers to consistent individual differences in behavior that are biologically based and are relatively independent of learning, system of values and attitudes. Some researchers point to association of temperam ...
traits. In many studies, conducted among others on victims of disasters and catastrophes it came out that such traits as emotional reactivity, perseverance and activity are significant moderators of psychological consequences (e.g.
PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a ...
) of experienced
trauma Trauma most often refers to: *Major trauma, in physical medicine, severe physical injury caused by an external source * Psychological trauma, a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a severely distressing event *Traumatic inj ...
. Jan Strelau published about 250 scientific articles in the field of
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
of
individual differences Differential psychology studies the ways in which individuals differ in their behavior and the processes that underlie it. This is a discipline that develops classifications (taxonomies) of psychological individual differences. This is distingui ...
and was author or editor of 44 books.


Selected publications

* ''Temperament, personality, activity'' (1983) * ''Temperament: A psychological perspective'' (1998) * ''The Pavlovian Temperament Survey (PTS): An international handbook'' (1999) with A. Angleitner and B. H. Newberry * ''Temperament as a regulator of behavior: After fifty years of research'' (2008) * ''Temperamental bases of behavior: Warsaw studies on individual differences'' (1985) editor * ''The biological bases of personality and behavior: Theories, measurement techniques, and development'', vol. 1 (1985) editor, with F. H. Farley and A. Gale * ''The biological bases of personality and behavior: Psychophysiology, performance, and application'', vol. 2 (1986) editor, with F. H. Farley and A. Gale * ''Personality dimensions and arousal'' (1987) editor, with H. J. Eysenck * ''Explorations in temperament: International perspectives on theory and measurement'' (1991) editor, with A. Angleitner * ''People under extreme stress: An individual differences approach'' (2006) editor, with T. Klonowicz * ''Temperament as a regulator of behavior: After fifty years of research'' (2008) Clinton Corners, NY: Eliot Werner Publications.


References


External links


Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities

Polska Akademia Nauk - Polish Academy of Sciences

Wydział Psychologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strelau, Jan Members of Academia Europaea People from the Free City of Danzig Psychologists from Gdańsk 1931 births 2020 deaths Academic staff of SWPS University Polish psychologists 20th-century psychologists 21st-century psychologists