Prominent Psychologists

Burrhus Frederic Skinner

 
Date of Birth: March 20, 1904

Place of Birth: Pennsylvania, U.S.

Date and Place of Death: August 18, 1990 (aged 86); Massachusetts, U.S.

University: Hamilton Collage (NY) and then Harvard University

Subject of Study: English Literature (he wanted to be a writer)

Field of Professional Study: psychology, linguistics, philosophy

Explanation of Theory/Discovery: Radical Behaviorism. It's the philosophy of science behavior. It's a belief that animal behavior can be studied profitably and compared with human behavior, a strong emphasis on the environment as cause of behavior, and a penchant for operationalizing. He believed behaviors are causal factors that are influenced by the consequences.

Carl Gustav Jung

Date of Birth: 26 July, 1875

Place of Birth: Switzerland

Date and Place of Death: 6 June 1961 (aged 85); Switzerland

University:  University of Basel

Subject of Study: medicine

Field of Professional Study: psychology, psychotherapy, psychiatry

Explanation of Theory/Discovery: Extraversion and Introversion: This human personalities theory says that every person has 2 sides - introverted side and extraverted and that one side is being more dominant than the other. Carl Jung defined extraversion as "an attitude type characterized by concentration of interest on the external object" and introversion as "attitude-type characterized by orientation in life through subjective psychic contents." 

Jean Piaget

Date of Birth: 9 August, 1896

Place of Birth: Switzerland

Date and Place of Death: 16  September 1980 (aged 84); Switzerland

University:   University of Neuchâtel, University of Zurich

Subject of Study: zoology and later psychology

Field of Professional Study: Developmental Psychology, Epistemology

Explanation of Theory/Discovery: Constructivism is a theory of learning that depends on way people create meaning of the world through the series of individual constructs; Genetic epistemology is a study of the origins of knowledge; Piaget's theory of cognitive development talks about the development of human's intelligence; Object permanence is a theory that describes that every object continues to exist even when we cannot see it anymore; Egocentrism can be defined as preoccupation with one's own internal world.

 


William James

Date of Birth: January 11, 1842

Place of Birth: New York City, New York

Date and Place of Death: August 26, 1910 (aged 68), New Hampshire

University:  Harvard University

Subject of Study: Pragmatism

Field of Professional Study: Pragmatism, Psychology, Philosophy of Religion

Explanation of Theory/Discovery: Pragmatic Theory of Truth: definitions and theories of a concept of truth; the Psychologist's Fallacy, fallacy = it's a form of "similar to me" stereotype; Radical Empiricism: It asserts that experience includes both particulars and relations between those particulars, and that therefore both deserve a place in our explanations. 

 

Erik Erikson

Date of Birth: September 26, 1849

Place of Birth: Ryazan, Russia

Date and Place of Death: 12 May 1994 (aged 91), Massachusetts

University:   Harvard University

Subject of Study: psychology

Field of Professional Study: Developmental psychologist

Explanation of Theory/Discovery: Theory on social development:  this theory explains eight stages through which a healthily developing person or human should pass from infancy to late adulthood. 




Ivan Pavlov

Date of Birth: 15 June 1902

Place of Birth: Frankfurt, Germany

Date and Place of Death: February 27, 1936 (aged 86); Soviet Union

University:  Medical Military Academy

Subject of Study: natural sciences

Field of Professional Study: psychologist, physician

Explanation of Theory/Discovery: Classical conditioning: this is a learning in which one conditioned stimulus comes to signal the occurrence of unconditioned stimulus. In Transmarginal inhibition, Ivan Pavlov found out that organisms have different levels of tolerance.

Lev Vygotsky

Date of Birth:  November 17, 1896

Place of Birth: Orsha, Russia

Date and Place of Death: June 11, 1934 (aged 37), Moscow (Russia)

University:  Moscow State University

Subject of Study: law and art

Field of Professional Study: psychology

Explanation of Theory/Discovery: The Zone of Proximal Development: it's a theory that says, there's a difference between what can a person do with and without the help; Cultural-historical psychology focuses on human development to make genetic claims about the function of mind in activity.

 

 

 

 

Anna Freud

Date of Birth:   3 December 1895

Place of Birth: Vienna, Austria

Date and Place of Death: 9 October 1982 (aged 86), London (England)

University:  Cottage Lyceum in Vienna

She became a member of Vienna Psychoanalytical Society.
Secretary of International Psychoanalytical Association.

Explanation of Theory/Discovery: Ego Psychology: A person interacts with the external world and at the same he/she responds to internal forces. Psychologists use a theoretical construct called "ego." Anne Freud focused on unconscious and described defenses that are available to ego.

George Armitage Miller

Date of Birth:  February 3, 1920

Place of Birth: Charlestone, West Virginia

Date and Place of Death:  July 22, 2012 (aged 92); New Jersey

University:  George Washington University,  University of Alabama

Subject of Study: history, speech

Field of Professional Study: Psychology, Cognitive Science

 

Explanation of Theory/Discovery: The Magical Number Seven or Plus or Minus Two: It's a Miller's Law which says that the number of objects an average human can hold in his working memory is 7 ± 2.

 

 

 

 

Sigmund Schlomo Freud 

   

Date of Birth:  6 May,1856

Place of Birth: Moravia, Czech Republic (nationality Austrian)

Date and Place of Death:  23 September 1939 (aged 83); London, England

University:  University of Vienna

Subject of Study:  cerebral palsy, aphasia and microscopic neuroanatomy

Field of Professional Study:  Neurology, Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis

Explanation of Theory/Discovery: Psychoanalysis: Freud believed that people can be cured by making conscious their unconscious motivations and thoughts. The aim of this therapy is to release repressed emotions and experiences. It deals with depressions and anxiety disorders.