Profile

Full Professor at the University of Coimbra, he taught and researched at the Faculty of Letters of the UC between 1963 and 1978, and at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences – FPCEUC, from 1978 until 2003. He graduated in Historical and Philosophical Sciences from the Faculty of Letters of the UC in 1961, with the thesis Mário de Sá-Carneiro- Esboço de uma biografia interior. With a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation from 1964 to 1968, he graduated in Psychology from the Catholic University of Louvain. In 1978, with the thesis Tarefa Fechada, Tarefa Aberta- Motivação, Aprendizagem e Execução (Closed Task, Open Task – Motivation, Learning and Execution ), he took the doctoral exams in Experimental Psychology at the UC, and was unanimously approved, with honours and praise.In addition to his continuous involvement in research and teaching, he also worked in university organisation and management. He was a member of the national commission that set up the Higher Psychology Courses that gave rise to the Faculties of Psychology and Educational Sciences in Coimbra, Lisbon and Porto. He was president of the Pedagogical Council, the Scientific Council and the Assembly of Representatives of FPCEUC, and a member of the UC Senate on several occasions. A member of various national and international scientific associations, he was President of the Portuguese Psychological Society and of the Association de Psychologie Scientifique de Langue Française. In 1988, he founded the journal Psychologica and, in 1995, the Institute of Cognitive Psychology, Vocational and Social Development, an R&D Unit of the FCT. In the area of providing services to the community, he was part of the inter-ministerial commission that, in 1984, proposed the creation of ‘Psychology and Guidance Services’ in schools within the Ministry of Education. He was President of the Centre Region Coordination Commission (CCRC) from 1992 to 1995. He was a member of the National Education Council for ten years, from 1989 to 1999. Co-founder of the ReCriar Caminhos Association – IPSS to Support the Psychosocial Rehabilitation of People with Schizophrenia. He is an Honorary Member of the Portuguese Association of Experimental Psychology (2009); Honorary Member of the Order of Portuguese Psychologists (2011). His research and teaching activities are in the area of cognitive-motivational psychology of intersubjective behaviour, along the lines of Lewin and Nuttin, defending a model of relational practice in psychological intervention. He is the author of a vast body of published work, including books, book chapters, forewords and articles in national and international journals, and has supervised numerous PhD and Master’s theses in Psychology and Educational Sciences.