José Luis Pinillos: biography of a reference in Psychology in Spain

José Luis Pinillos Díaz is considered one of the main promoters of contemporary psychology in Spain, along with José Germain and Mariano Yela, among others.

They are responsible for the establishment of the Faculty of Psychology in Spanish universities, after having been a Section of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters for years. He has been to date the only psychologist who has received the Prince of Asturias Award and has held an armchair at the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE).

In this biography of José Luis Pinillos We will briefly review the most important events in the life of this researcher.

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José Luis Pinillos: biography of a pioneer of Spanish Psychology

José Luis Pinillos was born in Bilbao in 1919. During his childhood she studied in his hometown until he went to college, at which point he enrolled to study at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, coming to specialize in Philosophy. He continued with his studies of Philosophy in Madrid, obtaining the extraordinary prize of the degree in 1947.

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Later he wins a grant from the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) that allows him to continue his work scholar and researcher in Germany, whose currents have come to greatly influence her way of conceiving the Psychology. There he worked with researchers such as Gruhle, Krotschmer, and A. Müller.

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Decade of the 50s: training in England and the beginning of his stage as a researcher at the University of Madrid

Jose Luis Pinillos placeholder image he traveled to England in the 1950s, on a scholarship from the British Council, to continue nourishing new knowledge from illustrious psychologists that the country brought together at that time, coming to attend courses taught by Anna Freud, Eysenk, Cattell, Shapiro, Timbergen and many other psychologists pointers.

It was there that he began his long friendship with Hans eysenck, recognized psychologist for his extensive work on behavioral therapy and his research on intelligence and personality.

In 1953 he began to work as a collaborator with José Germain at the School of Applied Psychology and Psychotechnics and it was the following year when He begins his work as a researcher in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Madrid where he carried out numerous investigations related to the Social psychology.

1960s: creation of the first schools of Psychology in Spain

It was in the 60s when Pinillos and Germain tried to create the Faculty of Psychology in the universities of Spain, but this initiative was not possible at that time. Consequently, they launched the creation of schools of psychology, among which the Spanish Society of Psychology and the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Madrid.

It is remarkable that Jose Luis Pinillos obtained the chair at the University of Valencia in 1962. Before that he had been working as a professor at the Central University of Caracas (Venezuela).

On the other hand, in 1966 he obtained the chair of Psychology at the University of Madrid, holding it for 20 years.

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The 70s: establishment of the first Faculties of Psychology in Spain

In the 1970s, at last its mission was fulfilled and the first faculties of Psychology began to be established in the country.

The Faculty of Psychology began as a specialty of the Bachelor of Philosophy and Letters at the University of Madrid (later named Complutense University of Madrid) and at the University of Barcelona, being included as a Section within the curriculum of said bachelor's degree. A few years later, this faculty was created at the Pontifical University of Salamanca and the University of Granada.

It is in the successive years when the faculties of Psychology begin to proliferate around Spain, being created in the Universities of Valencia, in the Autonomous of Barcelona, in Deusto, in the UNED, in Murcia and in La Laguna, among other

Regarding José Luis Pinillos, his work and that of his psychologist colleagues, among all of them, had achieved a great advance for Psychology in their country in the creation of a specialized faculty for its study, research and development for the years to come. Meanwhile Pinillos continued as a professor at the Faculty of Psychology at the Complutense University of Madrid, in addition to continuing with his work as a researcher and disseminator, highlighting his work “The physical and the mental".

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1980s: stage of recognition of his career as a teacher, researcher and forerunner of Psychology in Spain

Pinillos joined the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences in 1983, delivering in the act of appointment a speech entitled "The functions of the conscience." It should be noted that he was awarded the Spanish Society of Psychology Prize in that same year and, the following year, the Gold Medal of the University of Salamanca.

The year 1886 was a year full of awards and recognition of the work that José Luis Pinillos had developed since he graduated 4 decades ago. Among the recognitions are:

The Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences, in recognition of his great work throughout his long career as a promoter of Psychology in Spain.
The Mention of Collegiate of Honor of the Official College of Psychologists of Madrid.
The Gold Medal from the Center for University Studies.
The Gold Medal of the city of Madrid.

In that year he also joined the newly created Colegio Libre de Emeritos, a Spanish non-profit cultural foundation. Then, in 1988, he obtained an armchair from the Royal Spanish Academy, the one with the small “s”.

Last stage of his life

José Luis Pinillos Díaz never stopped working, since he began in 1947 as a researcher with a grant from the CSIC. Even after his retirement in 1986, he continued to carry out his work as a teacher, researcher, writer, disseminator and member of various academic and cultural organizations, such as UNESCO., until his death in 2013.

Currently, in the Historical Library "Marqués de Valdecilla" you can find several documents that belonged to to José Luis Pinillos, among which include manuscripts and typewritings written by him during the 70s and 80. All of them were donated by the Faculty of Psychology of the Complutense University of Madrid and by his family.

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Contributions to the dissemination and to the field of research

Jose Luis Pinillos placeholder image he developed a great work as a popularizer, with the creation of 15 books and 150 specialized works, as well as the publication of numerous articles in newspapers such as the ABC.

Among his most outstanding works are "The human mind", "Introduction to contemporary psychology", "Psychopathology of urban life", "The heart of the labyrinth ”and“ Principles of psychology ”, this book being probably the book that has been cited the most in Spanish publications on Psychology until the XXI century, since it has been the book that made available to readers the sample of a clear image of psychology scientific

Also, Pinillos he was a pioneer in Spain introducing the currents that were on the rise during the 20th century, learned during his stay in Germany and England. In his work as a researcher, disseminator and teacher, he was especially concerned with empirically demonstrating his methods.

According to the doctor in psychology Teresa Sánchez, José Luis Pinillos did not only have a biological or social approach, but always he sought to integrate a vision of psychology that brought together human biological, neurological and social perspectives, when considering that human beings are the product of meaning and the way they interpret their history.

He also developed several psychological tests and diagnostic tests in Spanish, among which are the analysis of the Kent and Rosanoff test (a test productive that consists in that the evaluated person must respond with the first word that comes to mind in relation to a series of words that the psychologist tells them that is examining you), the Osgood Semantic Differential, which is used to measure attitudes through the subjective meaning of language and the test of the Eysenck's CEP personality, used with the objective of evaluating three bipolar dimensions of personality traits (emotional control, extraversion, and paranoidism).