Wilhelm Kempf

Wilhelm Kempf (born June 1, 1947) is an Austrian born psychologist and peace researcher who has made significant contributions to theoretical psychology, psychological methodology and peace research. Alongside of Johan Galtung, Kempf is one of the founders of the concept of peace journalism, which he, in contrast to Galtung, however, does not conceive of as a form of advocacy journalism, but rather understands as a trans-disciplinary research program which has as its object the possibilities of and limits to maintaining journalistic quality norms during war and crisis situations.

Kempf graduated in sociology from the Institute of Advanced Studies (Vienna) (Diploma, 1970), earned a PhD in psychology, philosophy and statistics at the University of Vienna (Dr. phil, 1970) and achieved his postdoctoral qualification for a professorship in psychology (Habilitation) at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany (Dr. phil. habil., 1977). Immediately upon completing his Habilitation he was called to a chair in psychological methodology by the University of Konstanz, Germany, where he founded the Peace Research Group Konstanz, which he has directed up until today. Since 2002 he has edited the trans-disciplinary peace research journal conflict & communication online.

Kempf studied under Hubert Rohracher, whose concept of psychology as a science of man’s subjective world has lastingly stamped his scientific work, as well as under Gerhard H. Fischer, who awakened his interest in psychometrics, a discipline in which Kempf made a name for himself already at an early stage of his career. Under the influence of Hans Werbik and Paul Lorenzen, however, he soon also began to do research on the epistemology of social science and developed a constructivist foundation for psychological peace research that later grew into a comprehensive empirical and experimental research activity which focuses on the cognitive-emotional representation of conflicts and their influence on the escalation dynamic of conflicts. He thereby developed methods for a social-psychological reconstruction of subjective reality, which have implications beyond the disciplinary boundaries of psychology. They may be employed as well in science education and media research, ultimately placing the principles of quantitative and qualitative social research on a common methodological foundation and combinin competing research paradigms in a homogeneous whole.