| Abstract: | Joachim (Jack) F. Wohlwill was a well known developmental psychologist who spent some time at Clark University as director of its graduate program in developmental psychology. Jack's concern with the environment became manifest in 1963 when he accepted an invitation to spend the year as a Fellow in the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Jack's contributions to the study of environment and behavior are extensive, varied, and creative. With Irwin Airman and others, he edited books covering the environment in relation to children, elderly people, culture, the social sciences, and transportation behavior, as well as the impact of the natural environment on behavior. Jack's concern for developmental psychology remained as a potent force. In 1979, while still at Pennsylvania State, he became Professor of Human Development in the Programs on Individual and Family Studies and Man-Environment Relations. Related to his interests in developmental and environmental psychology was Jack's long-standing interest in the psychology of the arts and in the work of Daniel Berlyne on exploration, curiosity, and affective arousal, along with their roles in both the creation of and response to artistic stimuli. This interest in the psychology of the arts brought him back in formal contact with Clark University's Heinz Werner Institute for Developmental Analysis in 1986. Here he helped initiate a conference on "Development and the Arts," in which he was scheduled to present his work on "Effects of Media on the Creativity of Children's Art." Sadly for all, Jack died on July 10, 1987, in State College, just 10 weeks prior to the Clark conference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
