Marie Jahoda

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Marie Jahoda (January 26, 1907 - April 28, 2001) was a British social psychologist of Austrian descent.

Jahoda was born in Vienna, Austria. In 1928 she earned her teaching diploma from the Pedagogical Academy of Vienna, and in 1933 earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology from the University of Vienna.

In 1937, Jahoda fled Austria, staying in England during World War II. In 1946 she arrived in the United States. During her time there, she worked as a professor of social psychology at the New York University and a researcher for the American Jewish Committee and Columbia University. Between 1958 and 1965, at what is now Brunel University, she was involved in establishing Psychology degree programmes including the unique four-year, "thin-sandwich" degree. Jahoda founded the Research Center of Human Relations, and was recruited by the University of Sussex in 1965.

Through her work Jahoda identified 5 categories which she said were vital to feelings of well-being (1982, 87). These were; time structure, social contact, collective effort or purpose, social identity or status, and regular activity. She maintained that the unemployed were deprived of all 5.

She died in Keymer, Sussex.