Auke Tellegen (July 16, 1930 – March 11, 2024) was a Dutch-born American psychologist known for his contributions to

personality psychology Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that examines personality and its variation among individuals. It aims to show how people are individually different due to psychological forces. Its areas of focus include: * Describing what per ...

. He was a professor of psychology at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

from 1968 to 1999 where he helped develop the

Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire The Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) is a personality test A personality test is a method of assessing human personality construct (psychology), constructs. Most personality assessment instruments (despite being loosely referred ...

and contributed to the

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a standardized psychometric test of adult personality and psychopathology. A version for adolescents also exists, the MMPI-A, and was first published in 1992. Psychologists and other ment ...

Early life and education

Tellegen was born in Batavia, the capital of the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

, in 1930. He received his PhD in

clinical psychology Clinical psychology is an integration of human science, behavioral science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well ...

from the

in 1962 and did post-doctoral study in

at the

University of Minnesota Medical School The University of Minnesota Medical School is a medical school at the University of Minnesota. It is a combination of three campuses located in Minneapolis, Duluth, and St. Cloud, Minnesota. The medical school has more than 17,000 alumni as of 2 ...

."2012 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Assessment Psychology".
/ref>

Research

Tellegen, alongside David Lykken, studied the effects that genetics had on a person's happiness.

Absorption

Tellegen proposed the personality trait of

absorption Absorption may refer to: Chemistry and biology *Absorption (biology), digestion **Absorption (small intestine) *Absorption (chemistry), diffusion of particles of gas or liquid into liquid or solid materials *Absorption (skin), a route by which su ...

. In 1974 he developed the Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS) with Gilbert Atkinson, which he revised in 1982 and 1992.

Awards

Bruno Klopfer Award The Bruno Klopfer Award is an award for lifetime achievement in personality psychology managed by the Society for Personality Assessment. It is the Society's most prestigious award and is named after the Society's founder Bruno Klopfer. It was fir ...

, 2000 * Jack Block Award, 2001"The Jack Block Award".
''

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...

''. * APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to Assessment Psychology, 2012

References

1930 births 2024 deaths 20th-century American people Behavior geneticists University of Minnesota faculty University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni American clinical psychologists American people of Dutch descent {{US-edu-bio-stub