Jochen Fahrenberg

Jochen Fahrenberg (* September 18, 1937 in Berlin) is a German psychologist in the fields of personality and psychophysiology

Education and Career

Prof. Dr. Jochen Fahrenberg studied Psychology in Freiburg, London and Hamburg and received his doctoral degree from Prof. Dr. Robert Heiß on the subject of graphometry. After a position as a research assistant in Bad Oeynhausen he completed his postdoctoral thesis (“habilitation”) in 1966 about “Psychophysiological Research in Personality”. He retired as professor emeritus in 2002 from his dual function as head of the section Differential Psychology and Personality Research and co-director (with Prof. Dr. Michael Myrtek) of the Research Group Psychophysiology in the Department of Psychology at Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Germany.

Work

Jochen Fahrenberg succeeded Robert Heiß, the founder of the Institute for Psychology and Characterology (1944-1966) in Freiburg, to the chair where he shaped the structure and goals of the department for over 30 years. Through his empirical “falsification strategy”, in-depth philosophical discourse, and an early professional und practical orientation in the field of Psychology, he drew together central, often conflicting themes in the department’s past.

The Research Group Psychophysiology was founded 1970 by Jochen Fahrenberg and Michael Myrtek and given generous facilities first in Schillhof, later in Belfortstraße (in Freiburg). During its 35-year history it was the centre and the driving force behind multivariate activation research, psychophysiological research of personality, research in cardiovascular rehabilitation, disease behaviour, and life satisfaction. The research group also developed and promoted both methodology and techniques of ambulatory monitoring to assist behaviour research in everyday situations.

Fahrenberg conducted numerous extensive laboratory and field work focussing in particular on cardiovascular psychophysiology. His interdisciplinary efforts covered developments in methodology, theory testing – from the biology of personality to psychosomatics – and new perspectives in applied psychology. His work held a constant standing among the top in international research.

Fahrenberg’s psychodiagnostic work culminated in the development of various personality questionnaires, one of which, the (FPI; Freiburg Personality Inventory; comparable to the MMPI), is the most frequently used in the German-speaking countries. The seventh edition appeared 2001.

Jochen Fahrenberg remained independent and persistent in his search for invariance and consistency of mind-body processes and is an inspiring and influential model for many students and colleagues.

Publications

Jochen Fahrenberg has so far written around 200 articles, book chapters and books - see also the publications in the catalogue of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (German National Library). In 1972 he initiated the "Arbeitstagung für psychophysiologische Methodik (APM)” (Workshop for Psychophysiological Methods), from which has emerged the German Society for Psychophysiology and its Applications in 1982.The following is a selection of his most important writings:
*Fahrenberg, J. (1967). Psychophysiologische Persönlichkeitsforschung. Göttingen: Hogrefe.
*Fahrenberg, J. (1986). Psychophysiological individuality: A pattern analytic approach to personality research and psychosomatic medicine. Advances in Behaviour Research and Therapy, 8, 43-100.
*Fahrenberg, J. (1992). Komplementarität in der psychophysiologischen Forschung. Grundsätze und Forschungspraxis. In E.P. Fischer, H.S. Herzka & K.H. Reich (Hrsg.), Widersprüchliche Wirklichkeit. Neues Denken in Wissenschaft und Alltag. Komplementarität und Dialogik (pp. 43-77). München: Piper.
*Fahrenberg, J. &. Myrtek, M. (Eds.) (1996). Ambulatory assessment. Computer-assisted psychological and psychophysiological methods in monitoring and field studies. Seattle, WA: Hogrefe & Huber.
*Fahrenberg, J. Hampel, R. & Selg, H. (2001). Das Freiburger Persönlichkeitsinvenar FPI-R mit neuer Normierung. Handanweisung (7. Auflage). Göttingen: Hogrefe.
*Fahrenberg, J. & Myrtek, M. (2005). Psychophysiologie in Labor, Klinik und Alltag. 40 Jahre Projektarbeit der Freiburger Forschungsgruppe Psychophysiologie - Kommentare und Neue Perspektiven. Frankfurt a.M.: Lang.
*Fahrenberg, Jochen (2007) Menschenbilder. Psychologische, biologische, interkulturelle und religiöse Ansichten. Psychologische und Interdisziplinäre Anthropologie. Online in the internet at www.jochen-fahrenberg.de.

Since his status as professor emeritus, Fahrenberg has maintained his high level of productivity with no less than 30 publications thus far (as of summer 2007). Among them are four books: Psychologische Interpretation (2002), Alltagsnahe Psychologie (2002), Annahmen über den Menschen (2004) und Psychophysiologie in Labor, Klinik und Alltag (2005).

External links

* [http://www.psychologie.uni-freiburg.de/ Psychological Institute of Albert-Ludwigs-UniversityFreiburg, Germany]
* [http://dispatch.opac.d-nb.de/DB=4.1/SET=17/TTL=1/CMD?ACT=SRCHA&IKT=8500&SRT=YOP&TRM=Fahrenberg%2C+Jochen Publications of Jochen Fahrenberg] in the catalogue of the Geman National Library
* [http://www.jochen-fahrenberg.de Website of Jochen Fahrenberg]