José Luis Pinillos Díaz (11 April 1919 – 4 November 2013) was a Spanish psychologist. He spent 20 years as the psychology chair at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

. Considered the father of contemporary Spanish psychology, Pinillos wrote a textbook, ''Principios de Psicología'', that was once used by most introductory psychology courses in Spain.

Career

Early in his career, Pinillos went to Germany to work with Hans Walter Gruhle and to England to work under

Hans Eysenck Hans Jürgen Eysenck ( ; 4 March 1916 – 4 September 1997) was a German-born British psychologist. He is best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality psychology, personality, although he worked on other issues in psychology. At t ...

. He came back to Madrid in 1953, going to work for the

Spanish National Research Council The Spanish National Research Council (, CSIC) is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe. Its main objective is to develop and promote research that will help bring about scientific and techn ...

. In 1961, he spent a brief period at the University of Caracas, coming back to Spain later that year to take a psychology position at the

University of Valencia The University of Valencia ( ), shortened to UV, is a public research university in Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Valencian Community. It is regarded as one of Spain's leading academic i ...

. In 1966, he was named the psychology chair at the Complutense University of Madrid, and he retired from that post in 1986. Pinillos is considered the father of modern Spanish psychology. He was a member of the

Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas The Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas (RACMP, English: Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences) is a forum for the sharing of social, economic, philosophical, political and juridical knowledge. It was created on 30 September 1 ...

(Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences) and the

Royal Spanish Academy The Royal Spanish Academy (, ; ) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with national language academies in 22 other Hispanophon ...

. He served as vice-secretary of the Royal Spanish Academy in 1989–1990. He wrote ''Principios de Psicología'' (''Principles of Psychology''), which was at one time the textbook used by the majority of introductory psychology courses at Spanish universities. During the coup d'état of 23 February 1981, Pinillo was in contact with senior officials of the

Adolfo Suárez Adolfo Suárez González, 1st Duke of Suárez (; 25 September 1932 – 23 March 2014) was a Spanish lawyer and politician. Suárez was Spain's first democratically elected Prime Minister of Spain, prime minister since the Second Spanish Republi ...

government to assess the behavior of the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies () is the lower house of the , Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate of Spain, Senate. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. Congress has ...

assailants and predict their behavior. That night, in a call with the Undersecretary of Territorial Planning Juan Díez Nicolás and member of the provisional civilian government, Pinillos advised not to free the Congress, because "at night everything is magnified and now they will be emboldened for having demonstrated their power against the politicians, but at dawn they will collapse". A few hours later the coup d'état failed. In 1986, he earned a Principe de Asturias Award, and he received honorary doctorates from several Spanish universities.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinillos Diaz, Jose Luis 1919 births 2013 deaths Spanish psychologists People from Bilbao Academic staff of the Complutense University of Madrid Spanish military personnel of the Spanish Civil War (National faction) Blue Division personnel