Warsaw’s unique sites include not only the birthplace of Chopin and the Royal Castle of Poland, but a unique university – one founded by members of our own field. In 1996, three Polish scholars in personality science, Andrzej Eliasz (past president of the European Association of Personality Psychology), Zbigniew Pietrasinski, and Janusz Reykowski founded The Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities (SWPS).

As the school’s Rector, Professor Eliasz, explains, SWPS was founded “only seven years after the fall of communism,” a time when “there was a great need for university institutions and the demand for education was high.” SWPS was designed to fill this need, providing Poland’s students with an elite univerity whose structure and quality emulated the best models of higher education in Europe and the U.S. “Today,” Eliasz notes, “we pride ourselves in being the best non-public university in Poland in the field of social sciences and humanities.”

Reflecting its origins, SWPS has unique strengths in personality science. It has both a Department of Psychology of Personality, and a Department of the Psychology of Individual Differences. In total, these two departments house fifteen faculty members, and provide instruction to more than 200 masters-level students and twelve doctorate students.

Other specializations at the school include Social Psychology, Psychology of Cross-Cultural Relations, Social Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology of IT and Communication, and many others. The University also houses a professional school of psychotherapy, runs an MA program in social psychology in English, has the power to confer the D.Sc. (habilitation) degree in psychology, and manages its own publishing house.

Although located in Poland, the reputation and influence of the university extends beyond academic life in Europe. Reciprocal exchange programs, for both students and researchers, exist between SWPS and Chinese higher education institutions as well as the Appalachian State University (North Carolina). Consequently, the student body at SWPS includes many foreign students. In 2005, the Japanese government awarded SWPS a grant of almost a quarter of a million dollars to expand the SWPS Library's Oriental Studies Section. Moreover, top-class specialists from the world's most prestigious academic centers regularly lecture at SWPS; some of the guest lecturers from the United States include: Elliot Aronson, Robert B. Cialdini, Arie Kruglanski, Robert Zajonc, Philip Zimbardo and others.

BSPSP

Of particular note to the personality psychologist is that the university contributes to scientific exchange in our field by hosting the Biennial Symposia on Personality and Social Psychology (BSPSP). A personality psychologist at SWPS, Malgorzata Fajkowska, initiated the first conference and remains central to its planning. Dr. Fajkowska reports that her goal was to instigate “cross-discipline, international discussions of really important issues on personality, mind, brain and social behaviours.” She and her SWPW colleagues surely have succeeded. The 3rd such symposium, whose theme is Personality Dynamics: Embodiment, Meaning Construction and the Social World, is to be held on Sept 22-25. The head of the scientific committee is ARP member Daniel Cervone, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the international list of speakers includes Susan Andersen, John Cacioppo, Michael Eysenck, Klaus Fielder, Hubert Hermans, Paula Niedenthal, and Robin Vallacher.

So if you’re looking for one of the world’s most vibrant centers of research in personality science, look to Warsaw!