ABSTRACT
Fritz Heider was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1896. When he was 6 months old, his parents moved to Graz, the capital of Styria, an Austrian province. The young Heider had various interests. He used to carry a note book with him, in which he wrote down ideas, observations, and sketches. The young Heider's plans were to become a painter. But his father opposed it, arguing that fine arts are merely hobbies, not an 'ordinary job.' Heider took the opportunity and visited courses in a variety of subjects. He also went to Innsbruck University for studies in Zoology, and Munich University, where he attended lectures given by Karl Buhler and Charlotte Buhler. Kurt Koffka, one of the Berlin Gestalt psychologists, had gone to Smith College in Massachusetts to build a research department. In the year 1921, Heider went to Berlin to the Psychological Institute, where he attended Wolfgang Kohler's and Max Wertheimer's courses.
