| Institute of Psychology | |
| University of Szeged Faculty of Arts |
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| Built: | in 1912, in Neo-Roman style |
| Address: | 6722 Szeged, Egyetem utca 2. |
| Founded: | 18 December 1929. |
| Anniversary: | 80th (1929–2009) |
| Official homepage: | http://www.pszich.u-szeged.hu/ |
Institute of Psychology University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
The Institute of Psychology is located at 2 Egyetem Street, at the Szeged University Campus of the Faculty of Arts. The Institute of Psychology in Szeged is the longest-standing psychology institute in Hungary (founded on 18 December 1929).[1]
Today, the Institute provides one of the most dynamically developing Psychology training courses in the country – a three-year Psychology BA training, followed by a two-year MA course in two possible majors: Cognitive and Neuropsychology, or Counseling and Educational Psychology.
The legal predecessor of the University of Szeged was the University of Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár), which was founded in 1872 by Franz Joseph as the second university in Hungary of that time.[2] Psychology-oriented studies existed from the earliest days, but were taught by professors of Philosophy and Pedagogy. Psychology was first assigned its proper role by Professor Imre Sándor at the University of Szeged.
By 1919, the turmoils of history forced the University of Cluj-Napoca to relocate, and in 1921, the Hungarian National Assembly (according to the terms of Act XXV of 1921) designated the town of Szeged as the temporary location of the university. The former campus site was the Neo-Renaissance building in Szeged's Dugonics Square, originally built as a secondary school for modern languages and sciences in 1873. From 1925, the Faculty of Arts and part of the Faculty of Sciences were moved to the Neo-Roman building at 2 Egyetem Street, formerly a railway discount broker's office. The three-story building was built in 1912, according to the plans of Ottoway István and Winkler Imre.[3]
Psychology was first assigned its proper role by Professor Imre Sándor, who realized that the study of psychology is just as important as that of pedagogy. Accordingly, on 20 October 1926, he filed his petition to the directors of the university for the establishment of a fundamentally different, modern Department of Pedagogy and Psychology. György Málnási Bartók, the Professor of the Department of Philosophy, was an avid supporter of the petition, since the tuition of Psychology had been the responsibility of his department at that period. In his petition, Imre Sándor listed the following fields and branches as belonging to the new Department's sphere of competence: General Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Psychology of Differences, Education of Backward Children, Psychotechnics, and Pedagogical Somatology.
In 1929, the establishment of the Second Department of Pedagogy and Psychology was brought about by lucky circumstances, given that the petition of Imre Sándor and György Málnási Bartók would not have been sufficient by itself. At the University of Szeged, which had been relocated from Cluj-Napoca, the Faculty of Arts had a very low number of attending students, which threatened the very existence of the university. In the fall of 1928, to aid the foundering university, the Minister of Culture, Kuno Klebelsberg, ordered the relocation of the Paedagogum and the academic section of Erzsébet Girls’ School to Szeged. Thus, the Teacher Training College for secular elementary schools was founded. As part of their curriculum, students of the college had to complete a part of their training – essentially one of the two compulsory majors – at the university, hence boosting the number of students there. At the same time, the Minister abrogated secular teacher training at nun schools, which meant that nuns also had to attend the University of Szeged to receive such training.
Kuno Klebelsberg himself was completely unbiased by religion when appointing university teachers, however, under the pressure of Catholic bishops, he founded the Catholic departments as well. Thus, the first head of the Second Department of Philosophy was János Mester (1879–1954), a Catholic professor, while the First Department of Philosophy was led by the Protestant György Málnási Bartók. Likewise, the Second Department of Literature and the Second Department of Pedagogy and Psychology were founded with the leaderships of Catholic professor Sándor Sík and Dezső Várkonyi Hildebrand from the Benedictine Order respectively, on the other hand, the Protestant First Department of Literature and the First Department of Pedagogy and Psychology were led by Lajos Dézsi and Sándor Imre respectively. A most noble competition followed: both Dezső Várkonyi Hildebrand and Sándor Sík were excellent educators of the university and besides Philosophy, János Mester also engaged himself in studies of Psychology and Pedagogy.
On 18 December 1929, Dezső Hildebrand Várkonyi, a Benedictine monk was appointed as the Head of the Independent Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology. His appointment brought new perspective to the education at the University of Szeged. In Hungary, such an Independent Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology was founded in Szeged for the first time, only later to be followed by the establishment of the Department of Psychology at the University of Budapest, under the supervision of Pál Schiller Harkai in 1936.
Following the appointment of Várkonyi, psychology training at the University of Szeged could develop its distinctive image, primarily focusing on the mainstream Psychology of that time, namely on questions of Paedology, Developmental Psychology and Educational Psychology.
Várkonyi's lectures brought color to the history of education; he introduced the modern fields of Psychology, including the work of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Carl Gustav Jung and Jean Piaget. According to the recollections of his students, his lectures sometimes deviated from the formal rhetorical style and took on a more familiar character.
In the 1930s, István Boda, a Privatdocent at the University, held a series of lectures on the survey of the intellectuals, and the practical psychology of self-development.
The year 1940 brought another change in the life of the Institute and the university itself. Following the re-annexation of Northern Transylvania, the Franz Joseph University of Sciences was relocated back to Cluj-Napoca, together with the majority of its teachers, Dezső Várkonyi Hildenbrand among them.
In 1940, a new university was founded in Szeged, named after Horthy Miklós. The Institute of Psychology was established in 1941, as a new unit, with the Bendectine Pál Bognár Cecil – well known in the scientific circles of the time - appointed as Head of Institute.
Cecil Bognár's work at the Institute was focused on Child Psychology and Educational Science; in his publications, he primarily examined the idiosyncrasies of primary school children, and the issues of child personality types.
Cecil Bognár was passionately devoted to teaching – the word to be taken in the broadest possible sense. In addition to his research and teaching activities he grasped all the opportunities to educate all that were interested: he held countless popular lectures, including Open University seminars, radio broadcasts and newspaper articles.
Following the retirement of Cecil Bognár, the Institute of Psychology was incorporated into the Institute of Education and Psychology, in academic year of 1950-1951, led by the university's former Privatdocent, Béla Tettamanti (1884–1959). He was famously well-educated, his personality and intellect manifested itself even across the compulsory curtain of political ideology. In the 1960s his fame spread along the student grapevine: there is an excellent teacher at the Institute of Education and Psychology, Béla Tettamanti. Even then it was possible to relay worthwhile ideas towards to audience under the guise of Education History.
It is important to note that the role of Psychology was reduced in the 1950s, mainly due to political reasons. It was taught at a rate of merely two lectures per week, and only the study of General Psychology was allowed. This rather unfavorable, repressed position was brought about by the influence of high Party echelons, who were infamous for their malevolence towards Psychology.
Psychology, together with Sociology, was claimed to be seditionary and counter-ideological, and was generally thought of as a media of bourgeois ideology. Thus, under the leadership of Béla Tettamanti, the only possible approach for the Institute was to mimic the Soviet example, and teach in accordance with the ideology prescribed by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin.
In 1959, Béla Tettamanti was replaced by the new director of the Institute of Education and Psychology, György Ágoston. Ágoston represented the Marxist pedagogy, and almost completely repressed Psychology; for all practical purposes, Psychology was only present in the name of the institute. György Ágoston directed the Institute of Education and Psychology from 1959 to 1970; and afterwards the Department of Education between 1970 and 1. January 1990.
The Department of Psychology became independent from other disciplines in 1970, under the leadership of Lajos Dúró, until 1990. During that period, research and tuition was mainly focused on Educational and Developmental Psychology.
In the early 1990s, the Faculty of Arts of the József Attila University of Sciences called for the reorganization of its departments as institutes. As a result, the Department of Education and the Department of Psychology were merged as the Institute of Education and Psychology.
Under Vajda Zsuzsanna's leadership, Psychology was made available as a major from the academic year 1996/1997; initially under the aegis of the Institute of Psychology (director: Zoltán Kovács) of the Kossuth Lajos University of Sciences (now University of Debrecen).
The founding father of the independent Psychology major, available from the turn of the millennium, is Professor Csaba Pléh, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, who organized the Cognitive Science Group at the Department of Psychology, and in 1999, started the Cognitive Science and Neuropsychology Program of Szeged, or in short, the Cognitive Program. He laid the foundation for a professional psychology training course at the University of Szeged. The university's Medical Faculty and the Cognitive Science Group,[4] led by Csaba Pléh, organized the VIII. Conference of the Hungarian Cognitive Science Association (MAKOG),[5] titled The Development and Disorders of Cognitive Functions for 4–6 February 2000 in Szeged.
From 1 September 1999, the independent Department of Psychology functioned as an independent department at the József Attila University of Sciences (now University of Szeged).
As possibly a final chapter in the long and strife-filled history of Psychology tuition and research in Szeged, Psychology training is again in operation within the Institute of Psychology. The Head of the Institute – and formerly Head of the Department of Psychology – is Associate Professor Ágnes Szokolszky.[6]
In the summer of 2008, the Institute was moved to a new location, into a recently renovated wing of the Faculty of Arts. Currently there are three research laboratories on the premises:
At the time of writing, the above mentioned EEG and behavior laboratories are among the most modern laboratories of their kind in the country, and provide the opportunity for extensive scientific research of the highest standards, for lecturers and students as well.
Their achievements are marked by awards and grants from National Scientific Conferences for University Students and the Fellowship of the Hungarian Republic, a large number of Pro Scientia awardees, extensive ERASMUS relations, and a long list of well-known foreign guest-lecturers.
The history of Psychology training at the University of Szeged contains periods of glory as well as hardship. We mean to honor these memories and the work of our predecessors, and strive to live up to the example they set before us.
István Winkler[9] is Professor of Psychology at Institute of Psychology, University of Szeged from 2008. He's the Head of the Department of General Psychology, Institute for Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
The institute has strong ties to the international Psychology mainstream, as is proven by the lectures given by renowned visiting professors and the large number of students spending months at foreign universities on Erasmus grants.
The current academic and research activities of our lecturers and students are of the highest possible standards. The wide spectrum of professional expertise provided by our teachers warrants that our graduating student are well-prepared and have a very strong knowledge base to further build on. Awards from the National Scientific Conference for University Students,[10] the impact of publications by our teachers, and the popularity of their conference lectures mark the current activities at the Institute of Psychology in Szeged.
Regarding the performance of our students at National Scientific Conferences for University Students, suffice to say that year-to-year, they win 1st, 2nd or 3rd Prize or Special Awards in most subsections of the Psychology section, i.e. in General Psychology I., General Psychology II., Personality and Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology and Applied Psychology. This means one of the most prestigious positions on the award-roster among all the colleges and universities that offer training in Psychology in the country. The supreme-quality modern equipment (such as the equipment available in the above mentioned EEG and Behavior Analysis laboratories) ensures further satisfactory results.
Renowned guest lecturers in recent years
ERASMUS relations
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Cooperation with foreign and Hungarian universities
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