Famous Psychologists

Carl Gustav Jung

A psychotherapist and psychiatrist who laid the foundation for analytic psychology. He made theories for introverts and extroverted personalities. He also differentiated the two personality traits. He also founded many psychological concepts such as collective unconscious, complex and sychronicity. The Myer-Briggs test is also based on some of the findings of Jung.

Alhazen

A scientist, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher and polymath Alhazen made some discoveries in each field. He was muslim and lived during the golden age, he made many books on his findings which many did not survive however the few that did helped find discoveries in psychology.

Milton Erickson

An amerivan psychiatrist whos main aim were towards family therapy and medical hypnosis. He played a major role in the unconscious, strategic family therapy, neuro-linguistic programming, solution-focused brief therapy, brief therapy and family systems therapy.

John Bowlby

Bowlby was the founder behind the development of attachmenmt theory.

Simon Baron-Cohen

Co-authored the first study showing that children with autism experience delays in the development of a theory of mind

Stanley Milgram

Conducting many research experiments around the idea of obeidence.

Elizabeth Loftus

Contributed to the field of cognitive psychology and human memory. The misinformation effect and the eye witness testimony are her main works. Her theories also help sove legal issues.

Sigmund Freud

Defined what he named the Oedipus complex and also presented the three stages of immature sexual development.

Fritz Perls

Developed the schools of thought in the area of Gestalt therapy, he also devloped the main idea behind Gestalt therapy.

Lawrence Kohlberg

Developed the theory about the stages of moral development.

Kurt Lewin

Father of modern psychology. Conducted alot of research and even came up with a formula for human psychology.

Ernest Jones

First british pratitioner in the area of psychoanalysis and leading supporter aswell.

Francis Galton

First psychologist who used the statistical tools and methods to human behavior and differences and their level of intelligence.

Erich Fromm

Founded books that contributed to his works on psychology. Some include Escape from freedom, Man for himself, An inquiry to psychology of Ethics.

Alfred Adler

Founded individual phsychology and was also a psychotherapist.

Albert Ellis

Founded rational emotive beghavior therapy. He worked in areas such as clinical psychology, psychotherapy, and philosophy.

Alfred Kinsey

Founded the Kinsey institute of research, which researched things about sex, gender, and reproduction. He also completed alot of research on human sexuality.

George Kelly

Founded the cognitive clinical of psychology and renown for his theory called the personal construct theory which was about personality traits.

Alfred Binet

Founded the concept of intelligence quotient which measured a persons reasoning ability.

Charles Spearman

Founded the grounds for factor analysis and was the first psychologist to use mathematical models for analyzing the human mind.He also founded the concept of general intelligence, he also founded spearman's rank which measured the intelligence of the mind.

Abraham Maslow

Founded the theory of Hiearchy of needs which focuses on people whose gaol is to reach the highest level. Also the founder of Humanistic psychology which stresses an individuals potential and self growth.

Leon Festinger

Founded the theory of social comparison and cognitive dissonance theory. Also founded the theory for the proximity affect.

Daniel Kahneman

Founded works on decision making, behavioral economics, hedonic psychology, and judgment psychology.

Viktor Frankl

Founder of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis.

David McClelland

Founder of need therapy.

Wilhelm Wundt

Founder of the first formal psychological laboratory in 1879 at the University of Leipzig, also known as on of the founding fathers of moder psychology.

Robert Sternberg

Founder of the triarchic theory of intelligence which focuses on the concept of successful intelligence, he also founded the triangular theory of love.

Roger Sperry

He discovered that the human brain is actually made up of two parts. He found out that both the left and right parts of the human brain have specialized functions and that the two sides can operate independently.

R. D. Laing

He established the Philadelphia Association which he also chaired.

Rollo May

He established the fact that a person develops through stages.

Rensis Likert

He founded Internatinal Encyclopedia of Neurology, Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology, and he was also the author to many other books on psychology.

William Glasser

He introduced to the world of psychiatry the concepts of reality therapy and choice therapy

Kay Redfield Jamison

He is an american psychologist whose works mainly evolves around bipolar disorders. she was accredited with the findings of the moos disorder clinic in California.

Urie Bronfenbrenner

He is most =known for his Ecological System Theory and co-founder of the Head Start programme in United States that provides education to under privileged children.

Nathaniel Branden

He is one of the most well-known psycho-therapist famous for his works in the psychology of self-esteem. He also proposed six most important pillars of self-esteem that are living consciously, self-acceptance, self-responsibility, self-assertiveness, living purposefully and personal integrity

Robert Cialdini

He is the author of one of the most important books on the subjects of psychology and persuasion, Influence: Science and Practice and Influence: Psychology of Persuasion. He is also an expert on how cutting-edge persuasion techniques can be used to encourage environmentally-responsible behavior

Robert Hare

He is the creator of the Psychopathy Checklist and its revision, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, for the reliable and valid assessment of psychopathy.

Ken Wilber

He is the mastermind behind the integral theory, he also founded the integral institute in 1998.

Konrad Lorenz

He mainly focused his studies in the behavior of animals as a zoologist.

Jean Piaget

He reached the conclusion that the chain of reasoning in children and adults differ. He observed that the knowledge that children acquire is grouped into "schemas."

Aaron Beck

He studied issues that concerned depression, suicide, and addiction. He also helped find the cognitive therapy that would help patients with depression. Lastly he measured out depression on a scale and the actions and events that happen to dicipher the extent of the depression.

William James

He was the first educator in history to offer a course in psychology in the United States.

Hermann Ebbinghaus

He was the founder of the experimental study of memory as well as discovering spacing effect and the forgetting curve.

Paul Watzlawick

Helped introduced the theory of schizophrenia knows as the double bind which describes when a person is trapped under mutually exclusive expectations. He also made a book called Pragmatics of Human Communication.

Jacques Lacan

His work ranged from conventional psychiatric treatment to gradual inclusion of clinical psychoanalysis. he published in 1936, the "Mirror Stage" his first formal contribution to the field of psychoanalysis

Martin Seligman

Know as the father of positive psychology. He also founded the Learned Helplessness theory.

Virginia Satir

Known as the mother of family therapy, She was an American author and psychotherapist known for her significant works towards family therapy.

B. F. Skinner

Known by many many names such as behavioralist, psychologist, author, inventor and social philosopher, Skinner founded many books. he contributed to psychology by writing a whole chapter that involved behavioral psychology and he also founded the operant conditioning chamber.

Herbert Simon

Known for creating the terms of satisficing and bounded rationality

Mary Ainsworth

Known for her works on the emotional attachment of infants to their carfegiver using and experiment called the straange situation, and also the development attachment theory.

David Buss

Known for his evolutionary psychology research on mate selection with the basis on human sex difference. his works were based on human strategies for mating.

Timothy Leary

Known for his persuasion towards psychedelic drugs.

Hans Eysenck

Known for his work in the area of development of intelligence.

Ivan Pavlov

Known for his works in classical conditioning, transmarginal inhibition and behavior modification.

Harry Harlow

Known for his works on social isolation, maternal separation and dependency needs which he proved through experiments on rhesus monkeys.

Gordon Allport

Laid down the foudation for personality psychology.

Lev Vygotsky

Made a great contribution to the in the fields of child development and cognitive psychology.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

One of his major accomplishments was his study on happiness. His theory was named the psychology of optimal experience.

Max Wertheimer

One of the active founders of the Gestalt psychology, he also founded his own theory on gestalt psychology.

Jerome Bruner

One of the most influential psychologists who laid the foundation for researches in cognitive psychology. He founded that sensation and perception are active processes rather than passive ones conducting many experiments on perception which posed a challenge to psychologists when interpreting the organism's response to stimulus externally as well as internally

Steven Pinker

One of who advocated the computational theory of mind and evolutionary psychology. Steven has six books which he wrote such as; Work and rules, the blank slate, the stuff of thought, the better Angels of our nature, how the mind works and the language instinct

John Dewey

One who started the foundation for the development of functional psychology

Otto Rank

Otto Rank was the first psychoanalyst to view therapy as an experience of learning and unlearning.

Phil McGraw

Phil McGraw and his father presented "Pathways seminars" in collaboration with Thelma Box, a successful texas businesswoman in 1983 to provide training that basically allows individuals to create their own results. He also has a television show called Dr. Phil

Edgar Schein

Psychologist in the field of organizational development. Completed many theories that had to do with organizational development.

Julia Kristeva

She contributed by telling her ideas about the two components of signification in language: semiotic and symbolic.

Carol Gilligan

She is an American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist. She founded a book on the research studies that she did on women's psychology. She was one of the first many psychologist who mentioned things about the moral differences in gender.

Karen Horney

She laid the foundations of Neo-Freudian discipline.

Anna Freud

She was the co-founder of psychoanalytic child psychology. She followed in the footsteps of her father who happened to be Sigmund Freud while also taking another path. Instead of doing adult psychoanalysis she mainly focused on child and adolescents. She also made an impact on ego psychology.

Melanie Klein

Studied in the area of developmental psychology. She was known for her therapeutic techniques for children. She was also the founder of the formulating objects relations theory.

Solomon Asch

Studied the impact and consequences of indoctrination and propaganda. Also showed the effects of social pressure on conformity.

Margaret Mahler

Studied the symbitoc relationship between children and their parents. Made a huge impact on the fields of psychoanalysis and child development bye her theory of Seperation- Individuation theory which had 3 phases.

G. Stanley Hall

The first docterate of psychology student in America. proposed many theories that regarded child development and also the effects of educational systems of adolescents.

Søren Kierkegaard

The first existentialist philosopher.

Hugo Münsterberg

The founder of applied psychology. A German-American psychologist whose famous works in applied psychology were made up of various researches on legal, medical, clinical, educational and industrial fields

John Watson

Wanted to make psychology more based on scientific matters and took steps in making that happen.

Philip Zimbardo

Was the first Russian psychoanalyst, and also wrote around 30 papers on psychoanalysis in German as well as French.

Sabina Spielrein

Was the first Russian psychoanalyst, and also wrote around 30 papers on psychoanalysis in German as well as French.

Paul Ekman

Was the first person to study human emotions and how it could be related to facial expressions.

Henri Wallon

Was the first psychologist who applied the concept of dialectical materialism in his psychological studies.

Carl Rogers

Well known finder of the humanistic approach, his findings created a huge impact on psychotherapy, counseling, and education.

Albert Bandura

Worked alongside other psycologisy on order to find theories that relate to humans and their actions. he wrote a book about adolescent agression,

Edward Thorndike

Worked on animal psychology and is the father of modern educational psychology. He also had a theory on connectionism.

Alice Miller

Wrote three books regarding her findings on psychoanalysis. She than went on to study factors that affect the cause and affect of child abuse.