Fritz Heider

Psychologist

• Born: February 19, 1896
• Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
• Died: January 2, 1988
• Place of death: Lawrence, Kansas

Significance: Fritz Heider was an Austrian psychologist known for his development of attribution theory and balance theory. His 1958 book The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations was hugely influential to a number of later psychological theories. Alongside his research and publications, Heider was a professor at several institutions throughout his career. His work earned him many awards during his lifetime.

Background

Fritz Heider was born on February 19, 1896, in Vienna, Austria. His wealthy family was of Hungarian origin. His father was an architect, and his mother was an amateur actress. The family moved to Graz, Vienna, when Heider was very young. He was educated by a tutor in his early years before his family enrolled him at the local primary school at age nine. Heider damaged one of his eyes while playing with a cap gun in his youth, an injury that later kept him from enlisting in the army during World War I.

In his youth, Heider was already preoccupied with understanding human perception and relationships. A turbulent experience at his original secondary school became a defining moment in the young Heider's life, opening his eyes to the wider and harsher realities of the world. He transferred to Graz's Gymnasium where he became interested in painting. He decided to channel his interest in art into a practical career, enrolling at the Technical University in Graz in 1914 to study architecture.

Heider disliked the teaching style at the architecture school and longed to study painting professionally. His father discouraged his artistic ambitions, however, and persuaded him to study law instead. He enrolled at the law school of the University of Graz but quickly lost interest in his courses. Heider expressed his desire to study many subjects to his father. As a compromise, his father agreed to fund four years of Heider's education, during which he could audit multiple classes at various institutions. After this period, Heider was to study agriculture and raise pigs on land owned by his father.

Heider eagerly took advantage of his academic freedom, studying multiple subjects including philosophy, psychology, premedical science, zoology, and art history. He found himself most interested in philosophy and psychology and decided to focus most of his studies on these subjects. Heider spent much time studying at the Graz Institute of Philosophy under instructor Alexius Meinong, who specialized in ontology (the philosophical theory of existence) and epistemology (the philosophical theory of knowledge). Heider also studied psychological theories of human emotion during this period under the tutelage of Vittorio Benussi. He eventually became a doctoral student under Meinong, which culminated in Heider's 1920 dissertation on the problems of perception. The dissertation was one of the first causal theories of perception, arguing that a connection exists between properties of objects and the properties of their corresponding perceptions.

Overview

In 1921, Heider set off to Berlin, Germany, where he continued his studies. He paid for this schooling by selling antique books and working as a private tutor. During this period, he studied at the University of Berlin's Psychology Institute and traveled to other areas, such as Italy and Czechoslovakia. He met a number of influential philosophers and psychologists in Berlin, including psychologist Kurt Lewin, who remained Heider's friend until his death. Heider also worked for the University of Hamburg for a brief period.

Heider moved to the United States in 1930 after he was offered a position as a researcher at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Massachusetts, which was part of Smith College. At Clarke, Heider conducted research that helped develop his theories on interpersonal relations and social perceptions. Heider desired to put together an accessible framework that would help describe the assorted characteristics of social relations. He eventually decided to incorporate psychological theory into his philosophy of interpersonal behavior. Realizing that people's ability to understand the behavior of others varied greatly, Heider used the model of commonsense psychology to study what interpersonal interactions meant to people on an individual level.

Heider remained at Clarke for seventeen years before relocating to Kansas to take a position at the University of Kansas. He continued to study the psychology and science of interpersonal relations at Kansas. His work led to the formulation of two of his most important theories, balance theory and attribution theory.

Heider's balance theory sought to understand how people seek balance in their relationships while maintaining a hold on their beliefs and emotions. For example, when a woman sees a friend wearing an ugly outfit, she seeks a balance between her regard for the friend and her distaste for the outfit. Heider sought to examine the thought processes related to the arrival of such a balance.

First introduced in his 1958 text The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, attribution theory examined the nature of interpersonal relationships and discussed why and how humans assign motives to other people's behavior. Heider divided attribution into two types, internal and external. Internal attribution describes assigning a person's behavior to internal factors, such as a person's personal intentions. In external attribution, behavior is caused by external factors, such as weather.

These two theories became Heider's most important contributions to the field of psychology. He continued to undertake research and publish scholarly articles throughout the remainder of his career. The University of Kansas made Heider a distinguished professor in 1963, and he retired from teaching three years later. Heider spent his remaining two decades enjoying retirement with his wife. In 1983, he published The Life of a Psychologist: An Autobiography. Heider died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, on January 2, 1988, at the age of ninety-one.

Impact

Heider's theories of attribution and balance greatly influenced the course of future psychological research. He received many awards for his contributions to psychology. In 1958, he received the Lewin Memorial Award. He was also awarded the APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions in 1965. Heider was inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1981.

Personal Life

Heider fell in love with fellow Clarke researcher and psychologist Grace Moore and married her in 1930. They had three sons. He credited his wife with helping develop his theories throughout his career.

Principle Works

• The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, 1958
• The Life of a Psychologist: An Autobiography, 1983

Bibliography

Harre, Rom. Key Thinkers in Psychology. Sage Publication, 2006.

Heider, Fritz. The Life of a Psychologist: An Autobiography. University of Kansas Press, 1983.

Heider, Fritz. The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1958.

Malle, Bertram F., and William Ickes. "Fritz Heider: Philosopher and Psychologist." Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology, vol. 4, 2000, pp. 195–214.

"Members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 1780–2017—H." American Academy of Arts & Sciences, www.amacad.org/multimedia/pdfs/publications/bookofmembers/ChapterH.pdf. Accessed 16 Feb. 2018.