Testimonials: 1970-2017

Following the presidencies of Serge Moscovici (1966-1969) and Henri Tajfel (1969-1972), two of the founding fathers of our Association, 45 years have passed. Over the course of these 45 years, 15 consecutive presidents and Executive Committees have made for continuity and innovation, loyal to the ideas of our founders, while at the same time sensitive to new developments in the field of social psychology, and to wishes and concerns of the membership. They all deserve our admiration and gratitude.

Rather than presenting a detailed overview of these 45 years, I prefer to let a number of our former presidents and members of executive committees testify in their own words to how they experienced the Association, what they perceived as important challenges for the future, or whatever interesting events that they felt like sharing.

Some of the testimonials that follow are drawn from earlier presidential addresses, others come from former executive committee members and presidents in reply to my friendly request for memories. It is a selection only (my selection), with apologies to all the others whose undoubtedly equally valuable contributions to the development of our Association are not included.

List of Testimonials

• Jos Jaspars
• Willem Doise
• Wolfgang Stroebe
• Geoffrey Stephenson
• Janusz Grzelak
• Amélie Mummendey
• Gerod Mikula
• Gün Semin
• Tony Manstead
• Jacques-Philippe Leyens
• Anne Maass
• Carmen Huici
• Naomi Ellemers
• Vincent Yzerbyt
• Patrizia Catellani
• Fritz Strack
• Carsten de Dreu
• Fabrizio Butera

To conclude this section, I would like to remind you of the intentions of our founders, as transmitted to us by Moscovici and Jahoda. They opened their declaration of intention with the sentence:

The Association wishes to be neither ‘a learned society nor a purely formal linkage of specialists,’ but an agency promoting advancement. As far as promoting advancement this intention has been fulfilled. It is my opinion however that we cannot prevent the Association from being at the same time a ‘learned society’; but only when new challenges are met, will our Association be prevented from becoming a ‘purely formal linkage of specialists.’