Abstract
In Memoriam: Ivan Mervielde (1947–2011)
On Monday, August 22, 2011, the field of personality psychology in Europe lost one of its founders, Ivan Mervielde.
Ivan obtained a degree in Licentiaat Psychologische en Pedagogische Wetenschappen [Licentiate in Psychology and Educational Sciences], major in Education (1969) and Developmental Psychology (1970) from the State University of Ghent. In 1974, he obtained Master of Arts in Psychology from the University of California in Santa Barbara and in 1977 his PhD in Persoonsperceptie als Informatieverwerking [Person Perception and Information Processing] at the State University of Ghent under the supervision of Dr. William De Coster.
Ivan started his academic career as a researcher in the Laboratory of Experimental, Differential and Developmental Psychology of the State University of Ghent in 1969. In 1991, he became an assistant professor, in 1997 an associate professor, and in 2003 a full professor at Ghent University. He was a visiting professor at the Catholic University of Leuven from 1992 to 1993. Since 2004, he was the head of the Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology at Ghent University, grouping eight full–time professors, nine postdocs and twenty–five full–time research staff.
He was a founding member of the European Association of Personality Psychology (EAPP) in 1982 and organized the 8th European Conference on Personality in Ghent in 1996. He was a past president of the European Association of Personality Psychology (1998–2000) and a past editor–in–chief of the European Journal of Personality (2001–2004).
Ivan is best known for his research on personality and temperamental differences in children and adolescents and for his recent work on the link between personality and psychopathology in childhood. In addition, he also researched social cognition and the associations between personality and right–wing ideology. This research was carried out in strong collaboration with his PhD students Caroline Braet, Filip De Fruyt, Alain Van Hiel, Karla Van Leeuwen, Barbara De Clercq, and Sarah De Pauw and was published in major journals from a broad range of psychological disciplines.
Ivan actively served in the EAPP Executive Committee from 1996 to 2002. Together with Paul Costa, he organized in 2000 the first EAPP Expert Meeting in Ghent on the subject of person–centered approaches of personality description. He attended and actively contributed to every EAPP conference that was organized since the inception of the association. His last keynote lecture was at the 14th European Conference on Personality in 2008 in Tartu entitled ‘The structure of temperament and personality in childhood and its relation to problem behavior’. He further actively contributed to different EAPP summer schools as a teaching staff. As an incoming editor–in–chief of the European Journal of Personality, he introduced a board of different associate editors to optimize the review process and broaden the scope of the journal.
Since 1990, Ivan has taught introductory courses in social psychology to students in Psychology, Criminology, Law, Political Science and Sociology. This year, more than 1500 first year bachelor students attended his social psychology course. He has also taught personality psychology to students in psychology.
Ivan will be remembered by his international and close colleagues as a brilliant and creative scholar, thorough and persistent, with a broad view on the discipline of psychology, and prolific and witty in speech, teaching and writing. He was a loyal friend and colleague, concerned about his department and its collaborators. Most of all, he was dedicated to his family.
Ivan is survived by his mother, his wife Arlette and his sons Tim and Daan.