Per Saugstad (24 October 1920 – 7 November 2010) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

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 indi ...

. He was Professor of Psychology at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

, and is noted for his work on

visual perception Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding environment through photopic vision (daytime vision), color vision, scotopic vision (night vision), and mesopic vision (twilight vision), using light in the visible spectrum reflecte ...

thinking In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, an ...

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

, and the

history of psychology Psychology is defined as "the scientific study of behavior and mental processes". Philosophical interest in the human mind and behavior dates back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Persia, Greece, China, and India. Psychology as a field of ...

Career

He was born in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

. After getting a cand.philol. degree from the

in 1945, he went to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, receiving a Ph.D. in Psychology from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1952. Back in Norway, he joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo, rising to

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

in 1962 and full professor in 1967. He retired in 1990. In Chicago Saugstad had become interested in

experimental psychology Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ human participants and animal subjects to study a great many topics, in ...

, and his American approach to psychology was initially met with some resistance in Oslo, where the psychology department was still dominated by

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

in the 1950s. Saugstad has done important research in several areas, such as

, and

. Among his books are ''An inquiry into the foundations of psychology'' (1965), ''A Theory of Communication and Use of Language. Foundations for the Study of Psychology'' (1977), ''A Theory of Language and Understanding'' (1980), ''Language: A theory of its structure and use'' (1989). In later years, his work focused on the

, culminating in the book ''A History of Modern Psychology''. He was a member of the

Finnish Academy of Science and Letters 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 Fi ...

. He died in November 2010. He was the father of professor of pediatrics

Ola Didrik Saugstad Ola Didrik Saugstad (born 5 March 1947) is a Norwegian pediatrician, neonatologist and neuroscientist noted for his research on resuscitation of newborn children and his contribution to reduce child mortality. He is a Research Professor at Oslo ...

and professor of philosophy

Jens Saugstad Jens may refer to: * Jens (given name), a list of people with the name * Jens (surname), a list of people * Jens, Switzerland, a municipality * 1719 Jens, an asteroid See also * Jensen (disambiguation) * Jenssi Joensuu (; krl, Jovensuu; ) i ...

Books

*''An inquiry into the foundations of psychology'' (Universitetsforlaget, 1965) *''A Theory of Communication and Use of Language: Foundations for the Study of Psychology'' (Universitetsforlaget, 1977) *''A Theory of Language and Understanding'' (Universitetsforlaget/Columbia University Press, 1980) *''Language: A theory of its structure and use'' (Solum, 1989) *''A History of Modern Psychology'' (Cambridge University Press, 2018)

References

1920 births 2010 deaths Psychologists from Oslo University of Oslo alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Oslo faculty Norwegian expatriates in the United States {{Norway-academic-bio-stub