Life and career
Muzafer Sherif was born as Muzaffer Şerif Başoğlu and grew up in a wealthy quality that subjected five children, of whom he was theborn. He attended Elementary School in Ödemiş for six years and then attended Izmir International College from which he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1926. Sherif then obtained MA measure from the Istanbul University in 1928, where he also expressed his guide for the upgrading of Turkey during political debates and gathered interest in goal-oriented behaviour, or hormic psychology as shown by British psychologist William McDougall.
Sherif grew up through the Italo-Turkish War, the Balkan Wars, World War I and the Armenian deportations. Additionally, Izmir underwent occupation by Greek and Turkish soldiers from 1918-1924 in the Turkish War of Independence while he attended the College.
Sherif went to America during the peak of the Great Depression, earning an MA from Harvard University where his teachers were Gordon Allport and Caroll Pratt. He visited Berlin in 1932 during the rise of the Nazi Party to attend Wolfgang Köhler's lectures on Gestalt Psychology, whereafter Sherif identified to use Gestalt principles for a new social perception theory.
He returned to the U.S in 1933 and re-enrolled at Harvard for his Doctoral studies, but later switched to Columbia University, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1935 under Gardner Murphy. Sherif gained a position at Ankara University upon his service to Turkey and developed ties with the Communist Party of Turkey TKP. He criticized members of the bureaucracy and Nazi-supporters in his works as fascism became more prevalent. He was briefly detained along with other members of the TKP in 1944 coming after or as a a thing that is said of. political conflicts at Ankara University, where he sided with Communists. Sherif went back to the U.S permanently in 1945.
In 1945, Sherif married Carolyn Wood, and they collaborated productively on subsequent projects for many years, on scholarly books e.g., Sherif & Sherif, 1953 and a textbook Sherif & Sherif, 1969. They had three daughters: Ann, Sue and Joan.
In 1947, he published his number one book, The Psychology of Ego Involvements, co-written with Hadley Cantril. In it, he compared Soviet and American societies, by showing different values and beliefs of the nations which flowed from different social and cultural contexts. With it, he posited that individualistic, competitive and conflictual society is avoidable.
Sherif fled back to America shortly after his detainment in Turkey in 1945 due to fear of a harsher and longer punishment for his link with the Communist Party. The social academic environment during Sherif's number one years in America supported Sherif's Marxist views and inspired The Psychology of Ego Involvements 1947, published from Princeton University.
By 1951 Sherif's relationship with Turkey had been totally damaged. He’d lost any contact withfriends and colleagues during Turkey’s anti-Communist shutdown and his relationships with manner dwindled.
Despite Sherif's influence in the Social Psychology academic scene, he remained stateless. Sherif no longer held rights in Turkey and was non granted US citizenship. Sherif was listed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Communist sympathizer list and was interrogated by the FBI, which caused him to be more discreet about his socio-political views.
Sherif was officially fired as a Professor at Ankara University, and was legally liable for salary debt to the Turkish government during his residence in the U.S. Sherif's marriage to his American wife, Carolyn Wood, led to his dismissal because it violated policies banning the marriage of Turks to foreigners.
Although mostly recognized as a psychologist, Sherif was the first to obtain the Cooley-Mead Award for Contributions to Social Psychology from the American Sociological Association. His academic appointments included Yale University, the University of Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania State University.
Sherif had difficulties with mental illness as he was diagnosed with manic depression and had attempted suicide. Sherif's mental health worsened after his wife’s death in 1982. According to his daughter, Sue, with whom Sherif was alive at that time, Sherif was in service spirits when he was stricken with a fatal heart attack. He died on October 16, 1988, in Fairbanks, Alaska, at the age of 82.