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Psychology in the news

Evaluating Psychodynamic Theories

Personality

The Modern Study of

Personality

Genetic Influences on Personality

Personality

Environmental Influences on Personality

on Personality

Cultural Influences on

Personality

The Inner Experience

Psychology in the News,

Revisited

Taking Psychology With

You: How to Avoid the

“Barnum Effect”

2

Steve Jobs, “Father of the Digital

Revolution,” Dead at 56

PALO ALTO, CA, October 5, 2011. Steve Jobs, celebrated

worldwide as a visionary, a master of innovation, and “the

father of the digital revolution,” died today of the pancre-

atic cancer he fought for eight years. His family announced

that there would be only a private memorial service and

that  Jobs would be buried in an unmarked grave, as was

his wish.

The son of a Syrian immigrant and an American

mother, Jobs was adopted shortly after his birth by Paul

and Clara Jobs, a California couple. His early education

was erratic. He dropped out of college after six months,

spending the next year and a half taking classes that inter-

ested him, including one on calligraphy. Jobs later said

that taking that single calligraphy class was the source of

his fascination with typefaces and proportionally spaced

fonts—a passion he eventually brought to creation of

the Mac.

Before long, he went to India, where he roamed ashrams,

shaved his head, and wore Indian attire. There he was heavily

influenced by Buddhism, which teaches tranquility, lack of

ego, compassion for others, and nonattachment to material

things. Yet despite these lessons, Jobs later taught himself

to stare unblinkingly at others to make them uncomfortable,

and frequently yelled at his employees, calling them morons

and other insulting names, sometimes screaming that their

work “sucked.” Fortune magazine wrote that he was “consid-

ered one of Silicon Valley’s leading egomaniacs.” According

to colleagues, he took credit for other people’s work but went

ballistic when he thought other people were taking credit

for his. Yet, although he could be remarkably harsh to his

employees, Jobs also inspired them, pressuring them to

achieve what they never dreamed possible.

With Steve Wozniak, Jobs launched Apple Computers

in his father’s garage when he was only 21, amassed a

net worth of $256 million by age 25, lost control of his

company at 30, and was hired back a decade later for

theories of

Personality

Steve Jobs is remembered as a man of many contradictions.