IACCP remembers Isabel Reyes Lagunes
We are sad to communicate that Isabel Reyes Lagunes, has passed away in Mexico City, Mexico, March 4, 2020. Isa, as she was known to her friends, gave her life to train generations of psychologists in Mexico. Her academic work and legacy are an essential portion of the history of Mexican Psychology. Creative, committed, teacher, professional and researcher are a few of the adjectives that describe her and her prolific contribution to the field.
She was President and organizer of the 23rd International Congress of Psychology (ICP), held in Acapulco, Mexico in 1984, as the only event of its kind ever staged in Latin America. She also took over important responsibilities in three of the four IACCP Latin American Regional Conferences hosted in Mexico, the 1st Latin American Regional Conference in Merida, Yucatán, Mexico, 1994, the 2nd Latin American Regional Conference in Hermosillo, Mexico, 1996, and the 3rd Latin American Regional Congress in Mexico City in 2007.
Isa was part of the second generation of the career in Mexico, receiving the bachelor’s degree with honorable mention in 1965 and rounded up her training by earning a PhD in Social Psychology in 1982 from National Autonomous University of Mexico. She collaborated with numerous cross-cultural researchers around the world, including Rogelio Diaz Guerrero, Wayne Holtzman, Hector Betancourt, Harry Triandis, Martin Fishbein, Ype Poortinga and John Berry among others. Her work is an inevitable reference in the psychological literature. Her research interests led her to investigate the impact of culture on individuals and society. While her interest in psychometrics led her the development of culturally sensitive and relevant psychological tests, in a new methodology she termed Ethno-psychometrics. Among her most relevant publications and collaborations are: “The development of personality in two cultures: Mexico and the United States”; “The Impact of Educational Television on Child Development; Evaluation of Sesame Street in Mexico”; “The Personality of the Mexican”; “The other self of the Mexican” and “The measurement of personality in Mexico”. Isa was a professor at UNAM for 52 years, where she became an Emeritus professor in 2015. 46 undergraduate, 65 masters and 49 doctoral students completed their thesis and dissertation under her direction. We certainly are going to miss her presence, but will continue to follow her in her writings and through her students.
Rolando Diaz-Loving