Gustav Jahoda

Gustav Jahoda (11 October 1920-) was born in Vienna of a Czech father and a Hungarian mother. He was educated in Vienna, then subsequently in Paris and London. He studied sociology and psychology at London University before obtaining a lectureship in social psychology at the University of Manchester. In 1952 he took up a post at the University College of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in the Department of Sociology, where he carried out poineering research into cross-cultural psychology. In 1963, he was invited to set up a new psychology department in the University of Strathclyde, although he continued to make field trips to West Africa. Some of his work at this time was on the subject of superstition. He retired in 1985 but he still retains the post of Emeritus Professor at the University of Strathclyde.