Professor Tadeusz Tomaszewski (1910-2000)
Tadeusz Tomaszewski was born on July 12, 1910 in Lviv (which was then the territory of Poland). There, he studied Psychology and Polish Studies at the Jan Kazimierz University. He obtained his Master’s degree in 1934. His thesis was entitled Geneza ocen niedorzeczności [The Origins of the Assessment of the Absurd]. As of 1930, he was not only studying, but also working as an academic, in the role of Deputy Assistant, at the Department of Psychology of the Jan Kazimierz University. At the time, Mieczysław Kreutz (Polish philosopher and psychologist), who was a student of Kazimierz Twardowski (a renowned Polish philosopher, Rector of the Jan Kaziemierz University of Lviv), was the Head of the Department. In 1938, Tadeusz Tomaszewski completed his doctoral thesis entitled Metody badań dyspozycji złożonych [Methods for researching complex dispositions] and he became Assistant at the Department. He spent the academic year 1938/1939 in Paris, as a trainee with Henri Piéron and Henri Wallon. After WWII, he worked at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin for five years. In 1947, he obtained his post-doctoral degree (habilitacja) at the University of Wrocław. His dissertation was entitled Rodzaje i motywy reakcji negatywnch [The types and motivations of negative reactions] (1946). In 1948, he was promoted to the position of Associate Professor of general psychology at the Faculty of Mathematical and Biological Sciences at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University. In 1950, he moved to Warsaw and became the Head of the Department of General Psychology at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Warsaw, where he was working until 1968. Together with Maria Żebrowska and Stefan Baley, Professor Tomaszewski was working tirelessly to establish the first independent gradual level program of studies in psychology in Poland. He organized the Institute for Educational Research in Warsaw. In 1966, he was granted the title of full professor and became Dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Education at the University of Warsaw. He held this position until 1969. In 1968, he was nominated for the position of Director of the Institute of Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology and Education at the University of Warsaw, which he held until 1978.
Although the life and work of Professor Tomaszewski were strongly linked with the University of Warsaw, he played a pivotal role in the development of other research and educational institutions. He supported research conducted by the Institute of Psychology at the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). He collaborated with the Institute of Musical Education of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and supported the idea of creating the Warsaw School of Social Psychology (currently SWPS University of Humanities and Social Sciences).
From 1963 to 1980, he was a Member of the Executive Committee of the International Union of Psychological Science. In 1980, he became Vice-President of this organization. Since 1964, member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Applied Psychology. Vice-Chairman of the Committee for the Psychological and Educational Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), first Chairman (1972-1983) of the Committee for Psychological Sciences of PAN and subsequently, long-standing Member of this Committee.
Professor Tomaszewski was proud of the achievements of his students, who treated him as an unquestionable mentor and Master. He was a thesis advisor for numerous doctoral students, who went on to lustrous careers in Psychology and who have had a significant impact on the field of psychology in Poland and internationally. His first student to obtain the doctorate was Janusz Reykowski, in 1959. His other doctoral students include: Rajmund Kowalczuk and Mariusz Maruszewski (1960), Ida Kurcz (1962), Jerzy Ekel, Witold Kosmala and Stanisław Mika (1963); Jan Strelau was another doctoral candidate that year, and although his thesis advisor was Mieczysław Kreutz, Professor Tomaszewski advised on the thesis throughout the writing process; Józef Kozielecki (1964), Adama Frączek (1965), Barbara Karolczak (Karolczak-Biernacka) and Longin Paluszkiewicz (1968), Zofia Brzezińska and Wiesław Łukaszewski (1969), Janusz Grzelak (1970), Maria Materska and Tadeusz Tyszka (1971), Zofia Ratajczak (1972), Danuta Gęsik (Kądzielawy) (1974), Janina Karney (1977), Mieczysław Ciosek and Maria Konieczna (1978), Danuta Hendzel-Stopnicka (1980) and Marek Kłosiński (1992).
In the book Zachwyt i logika czynu. Portret intelektualny Tadeusza Tomaszewskiego [Admiration and the Logic of Action. Intellectual Portrait of Tadeusz Tomaszewski] (2006) Zofia Ratajczak writes that Professor Tomaszewski wanted his students to be bolder and more ambitious in searching for and formulating new research questions and in presenting their own results instead of following others. But at the same time, he wanted his students to be open to the research conducted by their colleagues. For knowledge to accumulate, there must be rules for the continuity of research (...) Researchers must be interested in actual human problems. Nothing good will come out of the dramatic schism between psychologists-researchers and psychologists-practitioners.
“It would be better if psychologists studied the actual behavior of people rather than if people thought that they behaved in a way that the psychologists study”, wrote Professor Tomaszewski in the foreword to the book on concrete psychology (cognitive psychology) by Stanisław Gersmann (Ratajczak, 2006, p. 318).
Professor Tomaszewski supported all constructive ideas and everything that could further the development of the discipline of psychology. Thanks to his numerous high-ranking functions in the world of science and his international renown, he enabled international networking for many Polish psychologists. He is widely considered as the father of the success of the Polish psychological thought. His original theory, known as the THEORY OF ACTION, has become the foundation of Polish psychology and has charted the direction for its further development, which has been carried out by Professor Tomaszewski’s students.
Professor Tadeusz Tomaszewski died on March 19, 2000. His final resting place is located at the Protestant Reformed Cemetery in Warsaw.
Commemorative plaque of Professor Tadeusz Tomaszewski
On January 21, 2020 a commemorative plaque of Professor Tadeusz Tomaszewski was unveiled at the Faculty of Psychology of University of Warsaw. The celebration was initiated by the Foundation with the support from the Faculty of Psychology of University of Warsaw
