Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Nationality: Austrian

Famous For: Father of Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud is best known as being the founding father of the branch of psychology known as psychoanalysis. It has been said that he derived his understanding of psychology by reading the plays of William Shakespeare. His contributions to the field of psychology his study of dreams, human sexuality, and of course, psychoanalysis. Carl Jung (1875-1961)

Nationality: Swiss

Famous For: Analytical psychology

Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, advanced the theories of personality traits known as introversion and extraversion; the concepts that deal with the conscious and unconscious, synchronicity, and the complex theory. More notably, Jung laid the groundwork for analytic psychology.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

Nationality: Swiss

Famous For: Genetic epistemology

A Swiss psychologist whose work in psychology involved child development. He pioneered the work known as epistemological studies to improve the teaching of children. He also advocated the theory of cognitive development which was the study of human intelligence. Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

Nationality: American

Famous For: Humanistic approach

As an American psychologist, Carl Rogers is one of the founders of the humanistic approach in psyshoclogy. He first used the person-centered approach terminology in his formulation of theories on interpersonal and cross cultural relations.

William James (1842-1910)

Nationality: American

Famous For: Father of American psychology

He authored the book Principles of Psychology which took him twelve years to complete, and is still being used to this day. He is one of the founders of functional psychology and has been associated the concept of pragmatism along with the assertion of free will. Erich Fromm (1900-1980)

Nationality: German

Famous For: Being & Modes of Existence

Escape from Freedom is Fromm’s first, and his most famous book The Art of Lowing continues to be read by students of psychology. He postulated eight basic needs of people: relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, sense of identity, frame of orientation, excitation & stimulation, unity, and effectiveness.

Erik Erikson (1902-1994)

Nationality: German-American

Famous For: Theory on Social Development

One of the most famous phrases attributed to Erikson is identity crisis. He is viewed as one of the pioneers of ego psychology and a proponent of the theory of personality which may be developed through eight different stages. B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)

Nationality: American

Famous For: Principle of reinforcement

Best known book or manifesto Walden Two, Skinner was a firm believer that “free will” was an illusion. He constructed a school of thought in psychology known as experimental analysis of behavior, in which he applied his theory of radical behaviorism.

Viktor Frankl (1905-1997)

Nationality: Austrian

Famous For: Logotherapy & psychology of philosophical thinking

Frankl specialized in the field of psychology, psychiatry, and neurology while focusing on the study of depression and suicide. His earliest published paper was on the psychology of philosophical thinking. After being liberated by Americans from a concentration camp, his book Man’s Search for Meaning became famous. Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

Nationality: American

Famous For: Maslow’s hierarchy of need

When it comes to the psychology of self-actualization, the name of Maslow immediately comes to mind. As a humanistic psychologist, Maslow believed the every person desires to achieve their full potential, to be able to reach “self-actualization.” The result is “Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs” which starts with the physiological (at the base), safety, love, esteem, and eventually self-actualization.

Paul Ekman (1934)

Nationality: American

Famous For: Discovery of micro-expression

As a pyschologist, he is considered one of the best in the twentieth century. He pioneered the study on how emotions may be related to facial expressions. He dismissed beliefs by anthropologists that expressions by people are based on culture, on the contrary, Ekman proposed that expressions are universal in nature, regardless of the culture. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

Nationality: Russian

Famous For: Conditioned reflex

Pavlov received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1904. Although considered a physiologist, his contribution in the field of psychology in what is known as the “conditioned reflex.” He developed the theory through the help of dogs, thus the reference to people who exhibit this behavior as being one of “Pavlov’s dogs.”

John B. Watson (1878-1958)

Nationality: American

Famous For: School of Behaviorism

The field of psychology was introduced to the school of behaviorism by John Watson. In theory, the goal of a behaviorist is to be able to control and predict behavior. The research by Watson involved animal behavior and children, most notably the controversial “Little Albert” experiments. Albert Bandura (1925)

Nationality: Canadian-American

Famous For: Theory on Social Learning & Self-Efficacy

Viewed as one of the most influential psychologists of the the twentieth century, Bandura pioneered the work on the social learning theory, in which he proposes that people, in general, learn behavior and other things through their environment and adjust their behavior in a social context.

Daniel Kahneman (1934)

Nationality: Israeili-American

Famous For: Prospect theory & Psychology of Judgment

A Nobel Prize recipient in the field of economics, psychologist Daniel Kahnemann is recognized for several fields in psychology, judgment & decision making, prospect theory, and hedonic psychology, more popularly known as “Happiness economics.” The prospect theory says the some people base their actions on the “potential value of losses and gains”, on rules they establish for themselves in making decisions, also known as “heuristics.” Steven Pinker (1954)

Nationality: Canadian

Famous For: Evolutionary psychology

Canadian psychologist Steve Pinker is an advocate for the computational theory of the mind and evolutionary psychology. Pinker specializes in explaining the fields of psycholinguistics and visual cognition. He is currently a professor at Harvard University.

Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

Nationality: Canadian

Famous For: School of individual psychology

In coining the school of “individual psychology”, Adler believed that a person, an individual, must viewed as an “individual whole,” a part of certain social strata. His premise was that personality of an individual can be teleologically explained. Alice Miller (1923-2010)

Nationality: Austrian

Famous For: Psychohistory

Swiss psychologist Alice Rostovski Miller centered her practice around the effects of child abuse. She used the writing of books to inform the public at large on the psychology of child abuse and its dangers on a child. This has led her to the specialization in psychohistory, wherein events of the past are viewed as precursors of present behavior.

Ken Wilber (1949)

Nationality: American

Famous For: Integral theory

Mystical philosophy, or Neplatonism, is not a field you would find a psychologist in, but such is the case in Ken Wilber. In his attempt to explain developmental psychology, Wilber promotes what is called integral theory, “a theory of everything.” It began as theory for transpersonal psychology, which evolved in the combination of western and eastern approaches in the psyche of man. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

Nationality: German

Famous For: Father of experimental psychology

It has been said that German, Wilhelm Wundt was the first person to have called himself a psychologist. It was he who formally established a laboratory dedicated for psychological research. His work in the field of psychology centered on a persons consciousness and must be considered a work in structuralism.

Melanie Klein (1882-1960)

Nationality: Austrian

Famous For: Developing therapeutic techniques for children

In the field of contemporary psychoanalysis and child psychology, Klein developed techniques to help children. Her methods involved the introduction of the “object relations theory,” in which the premise is that individuals relate to others in a social setting based on the experiences with the family from infancy. Sabina Spielrein (1885-1942)

Nationality: Russian

Famous For: First female psychoanalyst

As one of the leading contributors to the advancement of psychoanalysis, Spielrein began her participation in the field of psychology as a patient, student, assistant, and eventually as a professional. “Destruction as the Cause of Coming into Being” is Spielrein’s most influential and famouse essay written in 1912.

Kurt Lewin (1890-1947)

Nationality: German-American

Famous For: Founder of social psychology

Lewin proposed that there is a middle ground between behavior caused by nature and nurture, and this is wherein both nature and nurture “shape” a person by interaction. He coined the term “genidentity”, which is the beginning of an object or person, from one moment to the next. Karen Horney (1885-1952)

Nationality: German

Famous For: Founder of feminist psychology

As a psychonanalyst, Horney debunked everything Freud suggested in his theories on sexuality and the role of instinct in psychoanalysis. Her view on the theory of neurosis has been received positively over the decades, she contends the neurosis lends itself as a coping mechanism by certain people.

Anna Freud (1895-1982)

Nationality: Austrian

Famous For: Nature of ego

Anna Freud has been viewed as an advocate and founder in the “psychoanalysitc child psychology”. More importantly, her work revolved around the impetus of the ego and its relationship to the nature of man. She became the measuring stick, or “plumb line” as Jacques Lacan calls her, of psychoanalysis. Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)

Nationality: Soviet Belarusian

Famous For: Cultural-historical psychology

One of the theories posited by Russian psychologist Vygotsky is what is known as the ZPD or the zone of proximal development. This concept suggests a difference in what a person can learn without assistance, as opposed to receiving help. The other contribution by Vygotsky is cultural-historical psychology in which he looked at a persons customs, beliefs, culture, values, and even skills as being passed from one generation to the descending line.

Jacques Lacan (1901-1981)

Nationality: French

Famous For: Mirror stage theory

As a branch of psychology, psychoanalysis have many adherents following in the steps of Freud, Lacan is one of a handful of them. Lacan proposes several stages related to the formation of one’s psyche, the mirror stage is the most prominent of them. Milton Erickson (1901-1980)

Nationality: American

Famous For: Use of hypnosis

The use of hypnosis and family therapy was championed by Milton Erickson. His influence on addressing, through creative means, the “unconscious mind” has been recognized as noteworthy. He utilized techniques of which are still being employed to this day. Hypnosis continues to be a controversial subject, then and now, and the field of psychology has Erickson to thank.

Albert Ellis (1913-2007)

Nationality: American

Famous For: REBT, or Rational Emovitve Behavior Therapy

In his attempt to help individuals to help the society at large, American psychologist Albert Ellis the REBT, or Rational Emovitve Behavior Therapy. Ellis drew his methods through the inspiration from ancient and modern philosphers. John Bowlby (1907-1990)

Nationality: British

Famous For: Attachment theory

Bowlby is recognized for his work on child development. One of his notable achievements is the introduction of the “attachment theory,” wherein he suggests that social development in certain cultures are dependent on a childs relationship with his/her “primary caregiver” early in life.

Virginia Satir (1916-1988)

Nationality: American

Famous For: Mother of Family Therapy

Psychotherapy, another branch of psychology, is the area Virginia Satir excelled in. She is known for her work with families, “family reconstruction” and “family therapy.” Paul Watzlawick (1921-2007)

Nationality: Austrian-American

Famous For: Interactional view

Communication and miscommunication is the area of psychology Watzlawick is known for, better known as the “interactional view.” In this theory, Watzlawick identifies the reason miscommunication occurs is that some people, the communicators, do not speak the “same language.” They are coming from from two different viewpoints.

Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987)

Nationality: American

Famous For: Theory of stages of moral development

The theory of the stages of moral development comes from Kohlberg. As a moral psychologist, he identified the stages an individual develops a degree of morality which makes him/her a balanced person. It begins with the family, friends or peers, the neighborhood, school, etc…through adulthood. Philip Zimbardo (1933-1972)

Nationality: American

Famous For: Stanford prison study

Zombardo is the author of “The Lucifer Effect” wherein he explores how good people become bad, using the comparison of how Lucifer became Satan. His other work is the Stanford prison study. It was an experiement wherein he used volunteer students role play as prisoners and guards, studying the interaction between the two.

Stanley Milgram (1933-1984)

Nationality: American

Famous For: Study on obedience to authority

Yale University has been known for its social psychology experiments, Milgram conducted one of those, known as, you guessed it, the “Milgram experiment.” The goal was to study the extent a person would “obey an authority figure” even if the order given conflicted with their “conscience.” Martin Seligman (1942)

Nationality: American

Famous For: Theory of learned helplessness

In the theory of “learned helplessness,” Seligman observes that people, as well as animals behave, or even act, helpless in given situations, even if they have the ability to change the outcome. He also is a proponent of “positive psychology”.