Ernst Timaeus

Ernst Timaeus (born September 26, 1931 in Goslar ; † August 10, 2007 in Essen ) was a German psychologist who taught as a professor in Essen. In addition to other questions, he investigated for the first time in Germany unintentional investigator influences on the behavior of test subjects in psychological experiments ( Rosenthal effect ).

Life

Ernst Timaeus was born in Goslar as the son of the master glazier Ernst Timaeus and his wife Hedwig, nee. Meinshausen, born. After secondary school, he first completed an apprenticeship as a glazier in his father's company from 1949 to 1951 and then made up for his Abitur. Timaeus studied psychology from 1954 at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen , where he obtained his diploma in 1958 and in 1961 under Gustav Johannes von Allesch with a study on the effect of psychological stress on intelligence performance as a Dr. rer. nat. PhD. 1958–1962 Timaeus was a research assistant in Göttingen , 1960–1962 assistant. In 1962 Timaeus moved to the University of Cologne and worked there as an assistant from August 1962. He contributed to the establishment of the Institute for Social Psychology (head: Hans Anger ) and carried out courses and experimental studies on social psychology. In 1972 Timaeus accepted a position at the University of Essen that had just been founded (today the University of Duisburg-Essen ). At the same time he turned down calls to the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and to the University of Education in Berlin . Timaeus performed many functions at the university in Essen, promoted the expansion of psychology at the university, supervised doctoral students and accompanied interdisciplinary research projects, among others. a. to health-risky behavior. He retired in 1996 and then taught at the university for several years. Timaeus was married in his first marriage (1962) to the psychologist Susanne Timaeus-Wolf, who died at an early age, and his second marriage (1983) to the painter Johanna Timaeus, b. Brandenstein.

research

Timaeus began his scientific career with work on the Rosenzweig PF test, on sociometric studies ( sociometry ) and on the effects of stress. In Cologne he carried out modified replications of well-known American experiments, such as the experiment on conformal behavior according to Solomon E. Asch ( conformity experiment by Asch ) and on verbal conditioning according to Joel Greenspoon. Under the impression of the experiments of Martin T. Orne and Robert Rosenthal , the main research area of ​​Timaeus arose: the investigation of experimenter expectation effects ( Rosenthal effect ) - a research area that is still little known in Germany. Here an expected result was suggested to the student investigators and it was then observed in which way these expectations were expressed in the verbal and non-verbal behavior of the investigator and what the effects were on the behavior of the test subjects. Timaeus found that experimenter express their expectations in very different ways. The Rosenthal effect only occurs when the test subjects understand the experimenter's signals as they are intended. The decryption does not have to be conscious. Another area of ​​research was recording the attitudes of test subjects towards the psychological experiment. In summary, these works by Timaeus were published as a book in 1974. In further studies the effects of non-verbal communication , reasons for occupational prestige, the usefulness of American diagnostic procedures and other questions were examined. Timaeus carried out some of these investigations together with Helmut E. Lück (Timaeus and Lück 1969).

Honor

On his retirement from the University of Essen in 1996, Timaeus received a commemorative publication from students and colleagues, edited by Reinhard Wegner (1998), which refers to his work and interests in a variety of ways.

estate

Ernst Timaeus' academic estate has been in the psychology- historical research archive of the FernUniversität in Hagen since 2016 .

literature

• Lück, HE & Timaeus, E. (1969). Scales for measuring manifest fear (MAS) and social desirability (SDE and SDS-CM). Diagnostica 15 (3), 134-141.
• Timaeus, E. (1961). The effect of psychological stress on intelligence performance related to some personality variables. Unpublished Dissertation for obtaining the doctoral degree from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the Georg-August University in Göttingen. Offset printing 49 pages + 1 pages curriculum vitae.
• Timaeus, E. & Wolf, S. (1962). Investigations on the Rosenzweig PF test. Journal of Experimental and Applied Psychology, 9 (2), 352-360.
• Timaeus, E. (1967). Verbal conditioning and person variables. Journal of Experimental and Applied Psychology, 14 (1), 155–184.
• Timaeus, E. (1968). Investigations into so-called conformal behavior. Journal of Experimental and Applied Psychology, 15 (1), 176–194.
• Timaeus, E. (1974). Experiment and psychology. Göttingen: Hogrefe. ISBN 3-8017-0082-8

Festschrift

• Wegner, R. (Ed.). (1998). Contributions to the acquisition and application of psychological knowledge. Festschrift for Ernst Timaeus. Essen: Academy Publishing and Printing Society. ISBN 3-89275-017-3