Royce, Joseph R.

Joseph Royce was born August 19, 1921 in New York City. In 1941 he completed his undergraduate degree at Denison University in Ohio. In 1942, he was made a Research Officer in the U.S. Air Force Aviation Psychology Program after a year of graduate work at Ohio State University. After this service and the end of WWII, Royce went back to graduate school and completed his PhD in 1951 at the University of Chicago. This graduate training included mentorship from Roger Sperry and L.L. Thurstone. His dissertation was in the field of experimental physiological-comparative psychology and led to a doctoral fellowship at Jackson Laboratory.

Royce took an academic position at the University of Redlands and fostered an interest in theoretical psychology. 1960 brought a move to Canada as Royce took a teaching position at the University of Alberta, establishing a separate Department of Psychology.

His interest in theoretical psychology found root in 1967 when Royce became director of the Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Psychology which was founded with Ludwig von Bertalanffy and Herman Tennessen. Royce retired from the University of Alberta in 1986.

Royce authored over 100 scientific papers as well as co-authored the well-known books Individual Differences and Personality Theory (1979) and Annals of Theoretical Psychology (1984). He became an elected Fellow of both the Canadian and American Psychological Associations.

Royce died on September 21, 1989.

From the guide to the Joseph R. Royce papers, 1965-1974, (Center for the History of Psychology)