Founders in Psychology

Abraham Maslow: Created the Hierarchy of Needs

Aaron Beck: Used Cognitive Therapy to treat depression in an effective way. 

Albert Ellis: Rejected Freud's psychoanalysis and developed Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) based on his belief that most psychological problems come from irrational thoughts. Feelings are produced by the irrational beliefs we use to interpret events.

Alfred Binet: Created the first IQ test. 

B.F Skinner: Father of Operant conditioning theory, learning process where behavior is shaped & maintained.

Benjamin Whorf: Propose linguistic determinism, language used determines their view and thoughts of the world.

Carl Rogers: Developed Humanistic Psychology 

Carol Gilligan: Critic of Erickson, Believer that men emphasize justice, women emphasize care and compassion. 

Charles Darwin- Father of Evolutionary Psychology; Behavior shaped through natural selection.

Charles Spearman: Created the statistical procedure, Factor Analysis, to analyze corrections between different measures for intelligence. 

David Wechsler: Created his own intelligence assessments, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Wechsler Intelligence for Children (WISC) that also measured performance. 

David Premack: Discovered the “Premack Principle”, researched monkeys.

Diana Baumrind: Identified 3 styles of parenting.

Dorthea Dix: Involved in founding the first U.S. hospital for the mentally ill.

Dr. Kohlberg: Identified 3 stages of moral development.

Edward Titchner: Developed Structuralism 

Edward Thorndike: “Law and Effect” theory, behaviors influenced by consequences. 

Elizabeth Loftus: Studied misinformation effect.

Erik Erickson: Created Theory of Psychosocial Development with 8 stages 

Hans Seyle: Proposed the General Adaptation System (GAS)

Harry Harlow: Developed Contact Pov during infancy, stimulation & reassurance

Herman Ebbinghaus: Founded the learning curve, forgetting curve and spacing effect in cognitive memory. 

Ivan Pavlov: Classical Conditioning

Jean Piaget: Theorized that a child's intellect depends on their brain development and cognition levels. Created a 4 Step Theory describing cognitive abilities throughout child development.

John Garcia: Psychologist who researched conditioned taste aversion on rats, “Garcia Effect”

John Watson: Created theory of Behaviorism

Joseph Wolpe:  Systematic Desensitization. Built onto behavioral therapy with the biological principle of Reciprocal Inhibition.

Julian Rotter: Developed two concepts, Locus of Control and Cognitive expectancy, from his social cognitive theories. 

Lewis Terman: Terman's Longitudinal Study of Gifted Children, “Termites”

Mary Ainsworth: Developed Attachment Pov of infancy development 

Mary Cover Jones: Practiced Desensitization Therapy on phobias, became known as “The mother of behavior therapy” 

Margaret Floyd Washburn: Experimental work in animal behavior and motor theory development.

Mary Whiton Calkins: Pioneer in Memory Research

Noam Chomsky: Proposed theory of Linguistic acquisition

Paul Costa/Robert McRae: Developed the Big Five Personality Traits - O.C.E.A.N

Paul Ekman: Developed the Facial Coding System (FACS), universal facial expressions.

Paul Costa/Robert McRae: Developed the Big Five Personality Traits - O.C.E.A.N

Raymond Cattell: Came up with behavioral Surface Traits and developed the 16 Personality Factors (PF) Psychometric Questionnaire from the 16 source traits he had also founded. 

Robert Sternberg: Proposed the triarchic theory, categorizing types of intelligence.

Sigmund Freud: Developed Psychoanalysis

Solomon Asch: Group Conformity Asch Experiment.

Stanley Milgram: Social Psychologist (Can a person be pressured into committing an immortal act.)

Wilhelm Wundt: Father of Psychology

William James: Developed Functionalism