AP Psychology - Famous Contributors and Experiments

Roger Sperry

First to propose "split brain" surgery to help epileptic patients. Left/right hemispheres have different functions with brain specialization.

Lawrence Kohlberg

3 levels of moral reasoning (pre-conventional, conventional, post-conventional) and each divided into 2 stages. Criticized for only testing young children and not testing cross-culturally and between genders.

Jean Piaget

Proposed four stages of cognitive development - Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete, and Formal. Basic processes (assimilation and accommodation) work in tandem to achieve cognitive growth.

Konrad Lorentz

Known for imprinting studies. Showed how baby animals would follow the first object they saw after birth. Believed to be a built-in survival mechanism.

Jerome Kagan

In-born temperament may explain many behaviors. Believed in more biological view, thought our genes had a lot of effect on our personality

Harry Harlow

Theory of attachment and contact comfort in infant Rhesus monkeys; also experimented on the effects of social isolation in young monkeys.

Mary Ainsworth

Compared effects of maternal separation, devised 3 types of attachment; "The Strange Situation."

Eleanor Gibson

The "visual cliff" experiment. Showed that depth perception cues are innate.

David Hubel and Torsten Weisel

Conducted studies with monkeys to show that they had specific feature detectors to aid them in visual processing (some for lines, angles, edges, shapes, etc.).

Hawthorne Effect

Showed that factory workers had improved work performance with both improved and poor lighting. Performance improved simply because they were being observed in the experiment.

Ernest Hilgard

A hypnotic trance includes a "hidden observer" suggesting that there is some subconscious control during hypnosis.

Ivan Pavlov

"Father of Behaviourist Psychology." Famous for his classical conditioning experiments and the concept of the "conditioned reflex."

Robert Rescorla

Proposed that there is a conscious connection between the CS and the UCS in classical conditioning experiments.

John B. Watson

Emphasized the study of observable behavior and rejected the study of mental processes; famous for the controversial Little Albert classical conditioning experiment.

B.F. Skinner

Studied the impacts of operant conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment on behavior using "Skinner Box" with low level animals.

Albert Bandura

Studied how children model aggressive/anti-social behavior towards an inflatable "Bobo Doll" and developed the concept of observational learning.

Wolfgang Kohler

A Gestalt psychologist. Animals can display insight and problem solving , or that Aha! moment as done with the chimpanzee and use of stick.

Stanford-Binet

A test for for determining a persons intelligence quotient, or IQ. Modern IQ formula - Mental age/chronological age x 100.

Dave Wechsler

Modern IQ tests with specialized subtests and use of factor analysis.

James and Lange

Proposed the two-factor theory of emotions. Physical before cognitive when appraising an emotional situation.

Cannon and Bard

Claimed emotion arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers physiological responses and subjective experience of emotion.

Stanley Schachter and Singer Experiment

Showed that emotions have both a physical and cognitive component. The interpretation (cognitive appraisal) of physiological arousal determines emotional experience.

Aaron Beck

Pioneer in Cognitive Therapy who suggested negative beliefs cause depression.

Albert Ellis

Pioneer in Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET), focuses on altering client's patterns of irrational thinking to reduce maladaptive behavior and emotions

Hans Eysenck and Myers-Briggs

Did personality tests to validate the trait perspective.

Hans Selye

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) (stress responses) - the body's adaptive response to stress which occurs in three stages - alarm, resistance, exhaustion.

Solomon Asch

Known for the "line test." An important figure in the study of Conformity. Demonstrated the social conformity bias.

Stanley Milgram

Conducted conformity obedience study, "Shock Test", to see how far individuals would go to be obedient. Showed power of an authority figure.

Muzafer Sherif

Co-operation among divisive groups when they had subordinate (shared) goals. Known for Social Judgment Theory.

Elizabeth Loftus

Studied cognition and memory (repressed memories and false memories). "Misinformation effect" shown in memory studies.

Martin Seligmans

"Learned Helplessness Experiment" with dogs. Showed the external locus effect in animals (generalized to depression with humans)

Carol Gilligan

Maintained the Kohlberg's work was developed only observing boys and overlooked potential differences between the habitual moral judgment of men and women.

Alfred Adler

Neo-Freudian; introduced concept of "inferiority complex" and stressed the importance of birth order.

Thomas Young-Hermann von Helmholz

Trichromatic theory of color vision; said 3 types of color receptors (green, blue, and red) in the retina.

Henry Murray

Devised the TAT (Thematic Appreciation Test) with Christiana D. Morgan.Stated the need to achieve varied in strength in different people and influenced their tendency to approach success and evaluate their own performances.

David McClelland

He devised a way to measure Henry Murray's theory. Credited with developing scoring system for the TAT's use in assessing achievement motivation, not for the TAT itself.

Robert Zajonc

Developed the mere exposure effect. It is possible to have preferences without interferences and to feel without knowing why.

Paul Ekman

Emotions are universal. Facial expressions corresponding with 6 basic emotions recognized cross-culturally. FACS (Facial Action Coding System)

Mary Whiton Calkins

Developed theory of self-psychology and research technique for studying verbal learning. First woman to be elected president of the American Psychological Association (APA).

William James

Founded psychology in the U.S. and established the psychological school called functionalism. Studied how humans use perception to function in our environment.

Charles Darwin

"Father of Evolution" Evolution by "natural selection" (the weaker die out) wrote On the Origin of Species

Dorothea Dix

A reformer and pioneer in the movement to treat the insane as mentally ill.

Sigmund Freud

Psychoanalytical theory focused on the unconscious - id, ego, superego; believed innate drives for sex and aggression are the primary motives for our behavior and personalities.

G. Stanley Hall

Focused on childhood development and evolutionary theory. Established the first psychology research lab in the U.S.; founded the American Psychological Association.

Margaret Floy Washburn

American psychologist who studied animal behavior; first woman to receive a Ph.D. in psychology.

Wilhelm Wundt

Father of modern or scientific psychology. Psychology became the scientific study of conscious experience (rather than science). Structuralism - the approach and introspection - the methodology.

Ernst Weber

He pioneered the first study in JND (just noticeable difference). It became Weber's law; the JND between stimuli is a constant fraction of the intensity of the standard stimulus.

Gustav Fechner

Coined the term Psychophysics. The magnitude of a sensory experience is proportionate to the number of JND's that the stimulus causing the experiences above the absolute threshold.

Paul Broca

Discovered area in the brain (named for him) in the left frontal lobe responsible for language production. Injury to area resulted in person being unable to produce many words or to speak very fluently.

Michael Gazzaniga

Continued Sperry's work on split brain patients. Split-brain research provided understanding of hemispheric specialization; how the cerebral hemispheres communicate.

Edward Tolman

Illustrated 2 cognitive factors involved in learning: motivational factors and latent learning. Known for cognitive maps and mental representations.

John Garcia

Taste Aversion: aversions to a particular taste acquired through classical conditioning.

Edward Thorndike

Pioneer in operant conditioning and credited with Law of Effect-relationship between behavior and consequence. Studied Law of Effect with cats.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Proposed the terminally ill pass through a sequence of 5 stages: 1. denial, 2. anger/resentment, 3. bargaining with God, 4. depression, and 5. acceptance.

Mary Cover Jones

Developed systematic desensitization. "Mother of behavior therapy"; used classical conditioning to help "Little Peter" overcome fear of rabbits.

Leon Festinger and Carlsmith

Created terms cognitive dissonance and the social comparison theory.

Philip Zimbardo

Conducted the famous Stanford Prison experiment to study the power of social roles to influence people's behavior.

William Sheldon

Linked personality to physique and argued that both are governed by genetics: endomorphic (large), mesomorphic (average), and ectomorphic (skinny).

Martin Seligman

Conducted experiments with dogs that led to the concept of "learned helplessness." Proponent of positive psychology.

Benjamin Whorf

Hypothesized that language determines the way we think. "Linguistic determinism" or how language impacts thought.

Gordon Allport

3 levels of personality traits-- 1. cardinal - dominant trait that characterizes your life, 2. central - common to all people, 3. secondary - surfaces in some situations and not in others.

Diana Baumrind

Identified three different types of parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive.

Erik Erikson

Known for his 8-stage theory of Psychosocial Development.

Lev Vygotsky

Investigated how culture and interpersonal communication guide development; zone of proximal development; play research.

Paul Costa and Robert McCrae

The "Big Five Model"of personality: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism as broad dimensions of personality.

Carl Jung

Disciple of Freud and believed in a collective unconscious as well as a personal unconscious.

Coined the terms introversion and extroversion

Founded Analytical Psychology.

Alfred Binet

"Father of intelligence testing" - Devised the first useful intelligence test.

Francis Galton

Maintained that personality and ability depend almost entirely on genetic inheritance; linked heredity and intelligence; founder of the eugenics movement.

Howard Gardner

Devised the theory of multiple intelligences. 8 types of intelligence: (logical-mathematic, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, linguistic, musical, interpersonal, naturalistic).

Carl Rogers

American psychologist who founded the school of humanistic psychology, the human potential movement. Credited with person-centered theory.

Noam Chomsky

Believed humans have an inborn or innate (not acquired) propensity to develop language. Developed the Six Stages of Language Acquisition.

Herman Ebbinghaus

Pioneered the experimental study of memory; known for the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first person to describe the learning curve.

George A. Miller

"The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two." The capacity of short-term memory is limited to seven items (+ or - two) of information.

Alfred Kensey

Described human sexual behavior; study was controversial.

Abraham Maslow

Humanistic Psychologist. Proposed the hierarchy of needs, with self-actualization as the ultimate psychological need.

Charles Spearman

Believed intelligence is general-"G-Factor": People who are bright in one area are usually bright in other areas as well.

Robert Sternberg

Devised the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence (academic problem-solving or analytical, practical, and creative). and Triangular Theory of Love

Louis Terman

Adapted Binet's IQ to fit the needs of U.S. students. Revised test called the Stanford-Binet test and measures IQ.

Carl Wernicke

Found another "language center" located in the superior, posterior region of the temporal lobe (typically in the left hemisphere a few centimeters behind Broca's area).

Phineas Gage

Railroad worker who survived severe brain injury that dramatically changed his personality and behavior; played a role in the development of the understanding of the localization of brain function.

Karen Horney

Criticized Freud; said that personality is continually molded by current fears and impulses rather than being determined solely by childhood experiences; saw humans as craving love and social interaction to drive their needs.

James Marcia

Developed the four stages of identity statuses - diffusion, moratorium, foreclosure, and achievement.

Fritz Perls

Developed Gestalt Therapy to help clients become aware of, and take responsibility for, their thoughts, behaviors, experiences, and feelings.

Joseph Wolpe

Used classical conditioning theory in psychotherapy and introduced Systematic Desensitatization and concepts of reciprocal inhibition which he applied to reduce anxiety.

Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky

Performed research that showed people base probability estimates on heuristics that do not always yield reasonable estimates of success

Raymond Cattell

Known for 16 factor personality questionnaire and difference between crystallized and fluid intelligence.

Ancel Keys

Conducted semi-starvation experiments to measure psych effects of hunger.

Thomas Bouchard

Studied identical twins separated at birth. Found IQ heavily influenced by genetics

Harry Helson

Endorsed the life events model rather than the normative-crisis model for middle adulthood. Timing of particular events in adults life, not age, determine the course of personality development.

Virginia Johnson and William Masters

Pioneered the study of human sexuality under lab conditions; pivotal role in the field of sex therapy.

Simon LeVay

Found that certain brain regions (specifically, a cluster of cells on the hypothalamus) is different in homosexual versus heterosexual men.

Philippe Pinel

French physician who contributed to the more humane treatment of psychiatric patients in the late 1700s.

Theodore Simon

Worked with Alfred Binet to figure out mental age.

David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel

Specialized neurons in the occipital lobe's visual cortex respond to specific features of an image such as angles, lines, curves, & movement