Daniel Kahneman: biography of this psychologist and researcher.

One of the few psychologists to have won a Nobel Prize.

Daniel Kahneman (1934) is a naturalized American Israeli psychologist who has conducted important studies in decision making, judgment, theory of economic behavior and economic behavior, as well as experimental economics. The latter have impacted not only psychology but also economics and human activity in business, which led him to win the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002.

The following is a biography of Daniel Kahn. we will see a biography of Daniel Kahneman as well as some of his main contributions.

Daniel Kahneman: biography of this influential psychologist

Daniel Kahneman was born on March 5, 1934 in Tel Aviv, Israel; while his mother, originally from Lithuania, was visiting relatives. His early years were spent in Paris, a city to which both parents moved in 1920.

His stay in Paris was marked by the political context of the Nazi occupation, when his father was arrested and later released. In his writings, Kahneman himself has recounted that the experience of living in such a context had an important impact on his life. living in such a context marked in an important way his later interest in the study of sociology..

In 1948, Kahneman and his family moved to Palestine, shortly before the creation of the State of Israel. Eight years later, in 1954, Daniel Kahneman majored in psychology with a degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As soon as he had completed his training as a psychologist, Kahneman worked in the field of psychology. Kahneman worked in the field of psychology in the Israeli Defense Forces..

After this, he continued his professional development in the United States, specifically at the University of Berkeley, California, where he obtained a doctorate in psychology in 1958. D. in Psychology in 1958. As a teacher and researcher, Kahneman has worked at the Hebrew University, the University of Michigan, Harvard University, among others. He is currently an academic at Princeton University.

Theoretical development

Initially, Kahneman focused his research on the study of attention and perception. Later he focused on the study of two processes that would eventually lead him to be recognized as one of the most influential psychologists of his time: judgment and decision making.. However, in the 90's, Kahneman gave a new turn to his studies and began to research in the area of hedonistic psychology.

Law of small numbers

Together with another psychologist of Israeli origin, Amos Tversky, Daniel Kahneman developed important theories of behavioral economics. For example, the law of small numbers.

Through this concept, psychologists verified a fairly common phenomenon: the tendency to value the sample distribution as population-based, regardless of the sample size, which results in hasty and biased conclusions.

Tversky's mathematical studies and Kahneman's training in science led him to develop this law and to look critically at various scientific investigations as well as to explain various phenomena, such as the interpretation of political preferences and various cognitive biases..

Perspective theory

One of Kahneman's most recognized theories, which he developed in collaboration with Tversky, is prospect theory. It is recognized as one of the leading theories of behavioral economics, and suggests that, the less uncertainty about the consequences of a decision, the greater the risk orientation of some people. of some people.

Prior to its theories, economics held that decisions were determined by the calculation of the ultimate gains of each possible scenario, as well as by the likelihood that the latter would actually be obtained. Thus, each person would assess which scenario is the most likely and make a decision based on that.

However, Kahneman's research showed that people were unable to analyze complex situations involving decision making when there was uncertainty about their future consequences. In fact, evaluation based on the probability of occurrence of a given outcome was an absent decision-making exercise in almost all the people who participated. Thus, they argued that such an exercise is finally based on determining what the value of the gains and losses are, and not just on the most likely end result.and not only on the most probable final result.

Hedonistic psychology

By connecting work in economics with hedonistic psychology, Kahneman develops a new line of research focused on analyzing the situation of well-being and the and the possibilities of reaching a full state of happiness based on the economic situation.

This line connects psychology with economics and sociology, as it investigates the effects of economic dynamics on individual psychology and social practices. In the same sense, the focus of this theory is not so much economics as research on the quality of life.

Main works

The text "Pupil Diameter and Memory Load", 1966 and published in the Science Journalwas one of the pioneering works on this subject. Later, in 1971, together with Amos Tversky, Kahneman published the article "Belief in the law of small numbers", a work that inaugurated the theory of the same name.

In 1979, they published the article "Prospective Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk", which became one of the most important works in the field. became one of the most influential works of both psychologists..

Also, for their contributions to the understanding of decision making in the economic context, as well as in cognitive psychology related to this, Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002 and, together with Vernon Smith, was awarded the Talcott Prize in 2011..

In 2011 he received the Talcott Parsons Prize from the Academy of Arts and Sciences for his contributions to the social sciences. In the same public the bestseller Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow.

Bibliographical references:

• Daniel Kahneman (2018). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved September 04, 2018. Available at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Daniel-Kahneman
• Daniel Kahneman (2012). Totally History. Retrieved September 04. Available at http://totallyhistory.com/daniel-kahneman/