José Luis Pinillos: biography of a referent of Psychology in Spain.

A summary of the life of José Luis Pinillos, and his contributions to the world of Psychology.

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

To them we owe the establishment of the Faculty of Psychology in Spanish universities, after having been a section of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters for years. To date, he has been the only psychologist to receive the Prince of Asturias Award and to occupy a seat in 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.

José Luis Pinillos: biography of a pioneer of Spanish Psychology

José Luis Pinillos was born in Bilbao in 1919.. During his childhood he studied in his hometown until he reached the university, when he enrolled to study at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, specializing in Philosophy. He continued his studies of Philosophy in Madrid, obtaining the extraordinary prize of the degree in 1947.

Later he won a scholarship from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) which allowed him to continue his academic and research work in Germany, whose currents have come to greatly influence his way of conceiving psychology. There he worked with researchers such as Gruhle, Krotschmer and A. Müller.

1950s: training in England and beginning of his stage as a researcher at the University of Madrid.

Jose Luis Pinillos traveled to England in the 50's, with a scholarship granted by the British Council, to continue nourishing himself with new knowledge from the illustrious psychologists that the country had at that time.He attended courses given by Anna Freud, Eysenk, Cattell, Shapiro, Timbergen and many other leading psychologists.

It was there that he began his long friendship with Hans Eysenck, renowned 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 began his work as a researcher in the Department of Applied Psychology and Psychotechnics. he began his work as a researcher at the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Madrid where he carried out numerous research projects related to social psychology.

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

It was in the 1960s when Pinillos and Germain attempted the creation of the Faculty of Psychology in the universities of Spain, but this initiative was not possible at that time.but this initiative was not possible at that time. Consequently, they set in motion the creation of schools of psychology, among which the Spanish Society of Psychology and the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Madrid stand out.

It is noteworthy 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.

The 1970s: establishment of the first Psychology Faculties in Spain.

In the 70's, at last his mission was fulfilled and the first Psychology faculties began to be established in the country.

The Faculty of Psychology began as a specialty of the Bachelor's Degree in 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 that degree. A few years later, this faculty was created at the Pontifical University of Salamanca and the University of Granada.

It is in the following years when the faculties of Psychology began to proliferate around Spain, being created in the universities of Valencia, in the Autonomous University of Barcelona, in Deusto, in the UNED, in the University of Murcia and in the University of La Laguna, among others.

As for José Luis Pinillos, his work and that of his fellow psychologists, together they had achieved a breakthrough for psychology in his country by the creation of a specialized faculty for its study, research and development for the coming years.. Meanwhile Pinillos continued as a professor in the Faculty of Psychology at the Complutense University of Madrid, in addition to continuing his work as a researcher and disseminator, highlighting his work "The physical and the mental".

1980s: period of recognition of his career as a teacher, researcher and precursor of psychology in Spain.

Pinillos became a member of the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences in 1983.in 1983, delivering a speech entitled "The functions of the conscience" at the act of appointment. It is worth mentioning that he was awarded the Spanish Society of Psychology Prize 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 for the work that José Luis Pinillos had developed since he graduated four decades ago. since he graduated four decades ago. Among the awards, the following stand out:

• 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 Honorary Member 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 Eméritos, a Spanish non-profit cultural foundation. Then, in 1988 he obtained a seat in the Real Academia Española, the one with the lowercase "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 work as a teacher, researcher, writer, disseminator and member of various academic and cultural organizations, such as UNESCO, until his death in 2013.until his death in 2013.

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

Contributions to the dissemination and research field.

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

Among his most outstanding works are "La mente humana", "Introducción a la psicología contemporánea", "Psicopatología de la vida urbana", "El corazón del laberinto" and "Principios de psicología", being this book probably the book that has been most cited in Spanish publications on Psychology until the 21st century, since it was the book that made available to the readers the sample of a clear image of scientific psychology.

In addition, Pinillos 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 psychology doctor Teresa Sanchez, Jose Luis Pinillos did not have a solely Biological or social approach, but always sought to integrate a vision of psychology that brought together biological, neurological and social human perspectives. a vision of psychology that brought together the human biological, neurological and social perspectives, considering that human beings are the product of meaning and the way they interpret their history.He considered that human beings are a 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 analyses of the Kent and Rosanoff test (a productive test in which the person being evaluated must respond with the first word that comes to mind in relation to a series of words given to him by the psychologist who is examining him), the Osgood Semantic Differential, which is used to measure attitudes through the subjective meaning of language, and the Eysenck CEP personality test, used to assess three bipolar dimensions of personality traits (emotional control, extraversion, and paranoidism).