Hunyady, Gyorgy

Social psychologist

He was born in 1942 in Budapest. He graduated from the Psychology and History Departments of Eötvös Lóránd University (ELTE) in 1965. He received a Doctorate in 1967, and has been teaching at the Psychology Department since 1977, becoming university professor in 1988. As researcher of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and teacher and head of department of Lajos Kossuth University (KLTE), he played an active role in the establishment of social psychology in Hungary. He has been on a number of professional tours to the USA and taught as a Fulbright professor at the University of California. He has cooperated with, among others, David Hamilton, a pioneer in modern stereotype research, William McGuire, the leading researcher of opinion systems and John Jost, the leading representative of a new generation providing social critique of public thinking. His main fields of research are social cognition and social stereotypes, in particular historical links and changes as well as the use of social psychology in history, politics and economics. He received a post-graduate degree in 1972 and in 1986 he became a Doctor of sciences. He has been a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) since 2001. Between 1990 and 92 he was dean of the Faculty of Humanities, and from 2003 of the new Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology of ELTE.

The Character of Nations and National Stereotypes