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SWPS University - Main page

TADEUSZ TOMASZEWSKI

Foundation for the Development of Polish Psychology

The Tadeusz Tomaszewski Foundation for the Development of Polish Psychology was established in 2008 by Professor Zofia Ratajczak, administrator of funds left in deposit by Professor Tadeusz Tomaszewski (the Founding Fund was PLN 37,000).

The Foundation operates on the basis of the Foundation Statutes that are included in the notarial deed drawn up on July 16, 2008 (the Foundation Statutes are provided below). The Foundation is entered in the Register of Associations of the National Court Register under number 0000319411.

Account number of the Foundation, where interested parties may donate funds: 70 1160 2202 0000 0001 5523 3300. The Tadeusz Tomaszewski Foundation for the Development of Polish Psychology is not a commercial organization. The Foundation is not a Public Benefit Organization.

Polish website

Fundacja na Rzecz Rozwoju Polskiej Psychologii imienia profesora Tadeusza Tomaszewskiego

Our
Mission

According to §11 of the Statutes, the Foundation was established for the following purposes:

  • activity serving the development of psychology as a science
  • bringing together people and organizations, both Polish and foreign, wanting to devote their knowledge, skills and time to developing psychology as a science
  • activity benefiting organizations whose statutory goals include scientific activity connected with psychology.

According to §12 of the Statutes, the Foundation pursues its goals by:

  • supporting and organizing lectures, talks, workshops, training courses, conferences, seminars, congresses connected with psychology as a scientific discipline
  • helping with foreign stays important for psychology in case of financial barriers preventing such visits from taking place
  • granting prizes and stipends for projects connected with psychology
  • initiating and supporting innovative research and solutions in psychology as a science, contributing to its development
  • granting prizes for research projects that include original ideas or results, as opposed to contributions of the "one more variable" variety, regardless of what academic degree the authors hold, and facilitating the publication of such works
  • supporting publications that disseminate the scientific achievements of psychology
  • working with state institutions and nongovernmental organizations active in areas included in the Foundation's goals as well as being involved in domestic and international collaborations with institutions and other private individuals and legal persons interested in the Foundation's goals
  • working with institutions, organizations, private individuals and legal persons on activities of a psychological nature
  • popularizing psychology as a science
  • taking part in other projects compatible with the Foundation's goals.
.

Our Mentor

Profesor Tadeusz Tomaszewski

Professor Tomaszewski graduated from the Jan Kazimierz University of Lviv (currently the Ivan Franko National University in Lviv). He was a long-standing professor a the University of Warsaw and was granted the honorary doctorate by the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. Author of the acclaimed THEORY OF ACTION.

Tomaszewski tadeusz
(1981 Photo of Prof. Tomaszewski by M. Ciesielski)

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

Foundation Council

Professor
Zofia Ratajczak
Chair of the Foundation Council
 
Professor
Barbara Bokus
Member of the Foundation Council
Idalia Kurcz
The late Professor
Ida Kurcz
Member of the Foundation Council
Professor
Janusz Reykowski
Member of the Foundation Council
 
Anna D. Szuster-Kowalewicz
Professor
Anna D. Szuster-Kowalewicz
Vice-President of the Board
Elżbieta Turska
dr hab.
Elżbieta Turska, prof. UŚ
Member of the Board
258 Grażyna Wąsowicz
dr hab.
Grażyna Wąsowicz, prof. ALK
Member of the Board
258 Katarzyna Hamer den Heyer
dr hab.
Katarzyna Hamer-den-Heyer, prof. IPPAN
Member of the Board

Documents
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