Psychologist; Born July 21, 1926; Died February 23, 2008. RUDOLPH Schaffer, who has died aged 81, was one of Britain's foremost developmental psychologists during a career spanning five decades that made him an iconic figure in his field.

He was born into a Jewish family in Berlin in 1926, and experienced, during his early years, the growing horror of Nazism and anti-Semitism. In May 1939, his parents managed to secure him a passage on the kindertransport, and he escaped to England.

Arriving with very little English, he began his education at Ackworth, a Quaker boarding school in Yorkshire. His school holidays were spent at a farmhouse in Herefordshire, as one of four German children, guests of the Malcolmson family, with whom he kept in touch all his life.

When it was discovered at school that he never spent his pocket money, he explained that he was saving to bring his parents over to England after the war. However, he never saw his parents again; his father died of pneumonia in Theresienstadt camp, and his mother was gassed subsequently in Auschwitz.

After leaving school, Schaffer went initially to Liverpool University to study architecture, but was not enthused. He moved to London, took a job with a glass exporting company, and enrolled at Birkbeck College to study psychology in the evenings. By this time, he had also met Evelyn Jackson, and, in 1950, he graduated and they were married.

From 1951-55, he worked at the Tavistock Clinic under the direction of John Bowlby, the famous psychoanalyst who had done so much to draw attention to the emotional difficulties faced by deprived and separated children. Schaffer's research interest in the significance of early relationships was established.

Their son, Malcolm, was born in London in 1954, just before the family moved to Glasgow, where Schaffer took a position as a clinical psychologist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Yorkhill, from 1955-63. During this period, he gained his doctorate from Glasgow University, and his daughter, Katie, was born a Glaswegian in 1960.

Then, in 1964, he accepted an academic post to work with Gustav Jahoda at the newly-created University of Strathclyde, where together they built the now thriving psychology department. Since then, and for nearly five decades, Rudolph Schaffer has been an esteemed and iconic figure in child psychology, in Britain and internationally, particularly in the United States, and a source of inspiration and support to his colleagues at Strathclyde University. Indeed, the constructive and cooperative ethos that pervades the Strathclyde psychology department to this day is due in large part to the professional example that he set.

Schaffer never spoke openly about his early life experiences. For a young boy who lost his own parents in such dreadful circumstances, it is remarkable, but understandable, that his early psychological research focused on children's attachments and fear of separation. His groundbreaking empirical research on early attachment relationships led him to one of his many awards, the Bowlby-Ainsworth award in 2004. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1995) and an Honorary Fellow of the British Psychological Society (1998). In that same year, he received an honorary doctorate from the Open University, in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the study of child development.

It is unusual to combine talents in research and in teaching, but Schaffer did. His undergraduate lectures on developmental psychology, with his clear and measured delivery, brought him annual plaudits from his students. He made a major contribution to the Open University, giving up weekends year after year to teach on the masters course in child development.

His lectures were also remarkable for his endearing habit of jingling his keys in his pocket, which occasionally played havoc with the Open University's plans to make an audio recording. His teaching activities extended beyond academia, and also well into his retirement, with his enthusiastic involvement in the training of reporters to the children's panel, and children's panel members, where his ability to demystify the complex topic of child development was much appreciated. He was also a wise and supportive supervisor of countless postgraduates and research staff, many of whom have gone on to successful academic careers, even professorships.

His writing was exemplary in its clarity and erudition. He was a prolific publisher of books and peer-reviewed papers, from his early monograph with Peggy Emerson, The Development of Social Attachments in Infancy (1964), to his most recent Key Concepts in Developmental Psychology (2006). His many books (eg, Mothering, Social Development, Making Decisions about Children) have been translated into several languages. At the time of his death, he was editing another book, with Kevin Durkin, which will further cement his reputation.

Schaffer officially retired from Strathclyde University in 1992, but his scholarship continued unabated. Perhaps his most significant contribution to research in child psychology was his founding editorship of Social Development, which is now one of the pre-eminent international research journals in the field.

Individual research papers may come and go, and only ever find a limited readership, but the journal that publishes them is a permanent and a lasting monument to his memory.

Rudolph Schaffer was a kind, courteous and modest family man with an international reputation.

He is survived by his wife Evelyn, his children Malcolm and Katie, and his grandchildren Heather, Becky, Kirsty and Emily.