Written by: Tim Brouk, tbrouk@purdue.edu
When Abraham Tesser (MS ’65, PhD ’67) was about to embark on his graduate research within the Purdue University Department of Psychological Sciences, his mom, a New Yorker who had by no means been to Indiana, was frightened.
“My mom packed Campbell’s soup for me, pondering you’re by no means going to have the ability to get that in Indiana,” Tesser recalled with a smile.
Fortunately, West Lafayette did have grocery shops that carried such merchandise within the early Sixties. Extra importantly, it had a psychology program that was welcoming to new concepts; new school members; and younger, pupil researchers like Tesser.
Since then, Tesser has gained a powerful listing of accolades: He earned the 2010 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award and the 1999 Donald T. Campbell Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology. Tesser was additionally awarded the Nationwide Analysis Service Award and Senior Analysis Scientist Award from the Nationwide Institute of Psychological Well being, amongst different grants. He was additionally the president of the Society for Persona and Social Psychology in 2000 inside the American Psychological Affiliation (Division 8).
His work at Purdue gave him the credentials for a tenure-track school place within the Division of Psychology on the College of Georgia, the place he spent most of 32 years researching and educating social psychology earlier than his retirement in 1999. And that profession earned him a 2025 Purdue College of Health and Human Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award and his first journey again to West Lafayette because the early Seventies.
At this time, Tesser nonetheless resides in Athens, Georgia, and has discovered a brand new ardour within the native arts scene. He helped set up the longstanding Athens Jewish Film Festival, and he’s an completed furniture designer and builder.
What was the Purdue Division of Psychological Sciences like within the early Sixties?
I used to be taken with psychoanalytic theories once I arrived to check medical psychology. Not match! In these days, medical psychology at Purdue was strongly influenced by behaviorism and promulgating behavioral remedy. The mere suggestion that psychoanalytic concept had some benefit or curiosity worth was rapidly dismissed. In fact, the science appeared to validate the power of the behavioral strategy. It merely didn’t ignite an mental spark for me. So, I started searching for one thing else.
Purdue had strengths in statistics and psychometrics, and I discovered these areas attention-grabbing. However I used to be nonetheless searching for a substantiveapproach to understanding how and why folks do what they do. My first course in social psychology supplied that. It was intellectually seductive. Cognitive dissonance concept was making its debut, and I discovered it immensely attention-grabbing. Additionally, the strategies have been usually distinctive and interesting. Researchers weren’t solely asking folks what they’d do in a selected circumstance; they have been creating completely different social conditions within the lab and observing what folks truly do. The social psychology program at Purdue was in its infancy throughout my tenure; I used to be the second particular person to graduate in social psychology.
How did social psychology develop throughout your tutorial profession?
Social psychology turned extra essential as a subdiscipline inside psychology through the years. Psychology generally and social psychology specifically turned extra centered on cognition. It started exploring issues akin to heuristics and biases (for which a psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, received a Nobel Prize). The work in social cognition additionally explored the simple affect of non-conscious sources of conduct — one thing that may not shock a psychoanalyst! Attitudes and angle change, prejudice, stereotypes, social notion and interpersonal conduct maintained the eye of researchers. And for me, motivational points, particularly these regarding the self, remained essential. I’m joyful and proud to have helped advance the sphere in lots of of those areas as an editor of considered one of our premier journals, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (1991-94). Within the twilight of my working profession, a powerful curiosity in neuropsychology started to saturate the self-discipline.
Do you discover any correlations between your work in psychology and your work as a furnishings designer and maker?
To do attention-grabbing analysis or construct stunning furnishings one wants a set of abilities. However that isn’t sufficient. The genesis of any artistic work, both in tutorial analysis or studio artwork, is an thought. Have a look at the basic, defining work in any area. Along with novelty, the concepts usually have a simplicity, an class, even perhaps magnificence. My profession in psychology was not essentially motivated towards making the world higher place or understanding any particular phenomenon. I merely cherished the chance to discover stunning new concepts and to make use of or develop my methodological experience to check such concepts.
At an summary stage the identical is true in my present pursuits as a studio furnishings artist. I spend loads of time pondering and sketching concepts for items which might be attention-grabbing sufficient to warrant truly making an attempt to create. Then, within the studio, it’s a pleasure to make use of the talents I’ve developed to implement the venture. The analysis research through which I’ve been concerned have been usually “one-off.” In analysis, follow-up research are sometimes essential to discover the boundaries of the thought. Within the furnishings studio, most of my items are one-off. Further items come because the design is elaborated in a single path or one other. It’s the work of making stunning concepts that stored me within the lab. It’s that very same form of work that continues to seize my coronary heart within the studio.
