Sigmund Freud
Dr. Freud is often referred to as the father of clinical psychology. His extensive theory of personality development (psychoanalytical theory) is the cornerstone for modern psychological thought, and consists of (1) the psychosexual stages of development,
Eleanor Gibson
US psychologist, 1910-2002. best known for her research on the visual cliff which shows depth perception in infants. It is part of our perceptual learning. She received many prestigious awards
Carl Jung
Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology.
Erik Erickson
Developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst, best known for formulating the Psychosocial Stages of Development which outlined personality development from birth to old age. He also coined the term Identity Crisis which describes when a person loses their
Lawrence Kohlberg
American psychologist best known for his theory of stages of moral development
Carol Gilligan
American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist best known for her work on ethical community and ethical relationships, and certain subject-object problems in ethics
William James
Psychologist and philosopher, and was recognized for writing the Principles of Psychology, which is considered to be a monumental work in the history of psychology. James is known for the James-Lange Theory of Emotion, which he formulated independently of
William Wundt
German physiologist who founded the first experimental psychology laboratory. His Principles of Physiological Psychology (1873-1874) is considered a classic text
B. F. Skinner
One of the most influential of American psychologists. A behaviorist, he developed the theory of operant conditioning -- the idea that behavior is determined by its consequences, be they reinforcements or punishments, which make it more or less likely tha
John B. Watson
American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism
Jean Piaget
Swiss clinical psychologist known for his pioneering work in child development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology
Harry Harlow
American psychologist best known for his maternal-separation, dependency needs, and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys, which manifested the importance of caregiving and companionship in social and cognitive development
Carl Rogers
A Humanistic psychologist who agreed with the main assumptions of Abraham Maslow, but added that for a person to "grow", they need an environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), acceptance (being seen with unconditional
Abraham Maslow
American psychologist and a founder of humanistic psychology who developed a model of human motivation, in which a higher need is expressed only after lower needs are fulfilled
Karen Horney
German psychoanalyst who practiced in the United States during her later career. Her theories questioned some traditional Freudian views
Alfred Adler
Physician, psychotherapist, and the founder of Adlerian psychology, sometimes called individual psychology. He is considered the first community psychologist, because his work pioneered attention to community life, prevention, and population health
Gordon Allport
One of the founders of Personality Psychology. He is known for coming up with the Trait Theory of Personality, which categorizes traits or dispositions into three levels. A Cardinal Trait is a trait that defines and dominates one's personality and behavio
Hermann Rorschach
A psychological test in which a subject's interpretations of a series of standard inkblots are analyzed as an indication of personality traits, preoccupations, and conflicts. The test is named after its inventor, Swiss psychiatrist and neurologist Hermann
Solomon Asch
The Asch conformity experiments or the Asch Paradigm refers to a series of studies directed by Solomon Asch studying if and how individuals yielded to or defied a majority group and the effect of such influences on beliefs and opinions
Stanley Milgram
American social psychologist, best known for his controversial experiment on obedience conducted in the 1960s during his professorship at Yale
Philip Zimbardo
Known for leading the Stanford Prison Study, a controversial experiment which investigated the psychological effects of being a prisoner or prison guard. In the experiment, college students were randomly assigned to become prisoners or guards
John Bowlby
Psychoanalyst (like Freud) and believed that mental health and behavioral problems could be attributed to early childhood
Elizabeth Loftus
American cognitive psychologist and expert on human memory. She has conducted extensive research on the malleability of human memory
Robert Sternberg
American psychologist and professor who is best known for his theory on intelligence and creativity
Albert Bandura
Psychologist who is the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University
Raymond Cattell
British-born psychologist best known for his work in the field of personality psychology. Cattell grew up in a small town in England, with a father who worked on projects developing military equipment for WWI
Aaron Beck
American psychiatrist who is professor emeritus in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. He is regarded as the father of cognitive therapy, and his pioneering theories are widely used in the treatment of clinical depression
Noam Chomsky
American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, logician, social critic, and political activist.
Edward Thorndike
Famous in psychology for his work on learning theory that lead to the development of operant conditioning within behaviorism. Whereas classical conditioning depends on developing associations between events, operant conditioning involves learning from the
Hans Eysenck
German psychologist who developed personality theories that were based on genetics and temperament. He theorized that personality traits develop from innate genetic influences that are biological and inherited
Mary Ainsworth
Developmental psychologist who became known for her work concerning early emotional attachment of babies to their primary caregivers. In order to explore Attachment patterns, Ainsworth devised an experimental procedure called "A Strange Situation.
Roger Sperry
Psychobiologist (neuropsychologist and neurobiologist) who won the Nobel Prize for his split-brain research done with, among others, his student Michael Gazzaniga
Lev Vygotsky
The work of Lev Vygotsky (1934) has become the foundation of much research and theory in cognitive development over the past several decades, particularly of what has become known as Social Development Theory.
Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental ro
Martin Seligman
Commonly known as the founder of Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman is a leading authority in the fields of Positive Psychology, resilience, learned helplessness, depression, optimism and pessimism
Howard Gardner
Psychologist and Professor at Harvard University 's Graduate School of Education. Based on his study of many people from many different walks of life in everyday circumstances and professions, Gardner developed the theory of multiple intelligences
Kurt Lewin
Famous, charismatic psychologist who is now viewed as the father of social psychology. Born in Germany, Lewin emigrated to the USA as a result of World War II. Lewin viewed the social environment as a dynamic field which impacted in an interactive way wit
Ivan Pavlov
Russian scientist interested in studying how digestion works in mammals. He observed and recorded information about dogs and their digestive process. As part of his work, he began to study what triggers dogs to salivate
Hermann Ebbinghaus
German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first person to describe the learning curve
Benjamin Whorf
American linguist and fire prevention engineer. Whorf is widely known as an advocate for the idea that because of linguistic differences in grammar and usage, speakers of different languages conceptualize and experience the world differently
Robert Rosenthal
Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside. His interests include self-fulfilling prophecies, which he explored in a well-known study of the Pygmalion Effect: the effect of teachers' expectations on students
Carl Wernicke
Influential member of the nineteenth-century German school of neuropsychiatry, which viewed all mental illnesses as resulting from defects in brain physiology. A practicing clinical neuropsychiatrist, Wernicke also made major discoveries in brain anatomy
Jerome Singer
The Schachter-Singer theory, or two-factor theory of emotion, states that emotion is based on two factors: physiological arousal and cognitive label. The theory was created by researchers Stanley Schachter and Jerome E. Singer
David Rosenhan
The Rosenhan experiment was a famous experiment done in order to determine the validity of psychiatric diagnosis, conducted by psychologist David Rosenhan, a Stanford University professor, and published by the journal Science in 1973 under the title "On b
Paul Broca
French physician, anatomist and anthropologist
Charles Spearman
English psychologist known for work in statistics, as a pioneer of factor analysis, and for Spearman's rank correlation coefficient
Albert Ellis
American psychologist who in 1955 developed rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT)
Ernest Hilgard
American psychologist and professor at Stanford University. He became famous in the 1950s for his research on hypnosis, especially with regard to pain control
Phineas Gage
Survived an accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his head, destroying much of his brain's left frontal lobe, and for that injuries reported effects on his personality and behavior Phineas Gage influenced nineteenth-century disc
Alfred Binet
French psychologist who invented the first practical intelligence test, the Binet-Simon scale
Stanley Schachter
American social psychologist, who is perhaps best known for his development of the two factor theory of emotion in 1962 along with Jerome E. Singer. In his theory he states that emotions have two ingredients: physiological arousal and a cognitive label.