Famous Psychologists and Their Contributions

Founders and Contributors

• Wilhelm Wundt: Father of Psychology, established the first Experimental Psychology Laboratory in Leipzig, Germany in 1879.
• James Titchener: Contributed to Structuralism.
• William James: Principles of Psychology (1890), influenced the development of Functionalism.
• Max Wertheimer: Founder of the Gestalt School, discovered the Phi-Phenomenon.
• Wolfgang Kohler: Contributed to the Gestalt School.
• Kurt Koffka: Contributed to the Gestalt School.

Psychoanalysis

• Sigmund Freud: Developed Psychoanalysis.
• Alfred Adler: Developed Individual Psychology, influenced by Freud.
• Carl Jung: Developed Analytical Psychology, influenced by Freud.
• Anna Freud: Developed the Ego movement.

Behaviorism

• John B. Watson: Founder of Behaviorism.
• BF Skinner: Developed Operant Conditioning, a key aspect of Behaviorism.
• Edward C. Tolman: Developed Neo-Behaviorism.
• Albert Bandura: Developed Social Learning Theory, a key aspect of Neo-Behaviorism.
• Carl Rogers: Developed Person-Centered Therapy, a key aspect of Neo-Behaviorism.
• Abraham Maslow: Developed Humanistic Psychology, a key aspect of Neo-Behaviorism.
• Allport Gordon: Contributed to Neo-Behaviorism.

Socio-Cultural Perspective

• Lev Vygotsky: Developed the Socio-Cultural Perspective.
• John Darley: Contributed to the Socio-Cultural Perspective.
• Bibb Lataney: Contributed to the Socio-Cultural Perspective.
• Albert Bandura: Contributed to the Socio-Cultural Perspective.

Bio-Psychological Perspective

• Paul Broca: Contributed to the Bio-Psychological Perspective.
• Charles Darwin: Contributed to the Bio-Psychological Perspective.
• David Buss: Developed Evolutionary Psychology.
• Richard Dawkins: Developed Evolutionary Psychology.

Other Contributors

• Plato: Contributed to the development of Psyche.
• Aristotle: Contributed to the development of Mind-Observation and Reason.
• Rene Descartes: Developed Dualism.
• Gustav Fechner: Conducted basic experimentation in Psychology.
• Johannes Muller: Discovered Nerve Impulses.
• Hermann Von Helmholtz: Contributed to the study of Visual and Auditory Perception.

Indian Psychology

• Bajendra Nath Seal: Developed the syllabus of Psychology in 1905.
• NN Sen Gupta: Established the first Department of Psychology in 1916.
• Girindra Sehkar Bose: Founded the Indian Psychoanalytic Society in 1922.

Conditioning

• Ivan Pavlov: Developed Classical Conditioning.
• Garcia & Koelling: Developed Biological Preparedness.
• BF Skinner: Developed Operant Conditioning.
• Thorndike: Developed the Law of Effect.
• Seligman & Maier: Developed Learned Helplessness.

Learning

• Albert Bandura: Developed Social Learning Theory.
• Wolfgang Kohler: Developed Insight Learning.
• Edward Toleman: Developed Latent Learning.
• Clark Hull: Developed Drive Reduction Theory.

Social Psychology

• Muzafer Sherif: Developed the Conformity Theory.
• Solomon Asch: Conducted the Conformity Experiment.
• Adams: Developed the Equity Theory.
• Sanders & Hamilton: Developed the 3 Facets of Justice.
• Beis & Moag: Developed the Interactional Justice Theory.

Developmental Psychology

• Jean Piaget: Developed the Theory of Cognitive Development.
• Mary Ainsworth: Developed the Attachment Theory.
• Harry Harlow: Developed the Contact Comfort Theory.
• Erik Erikson: Developed the Psychosocial Development Theory.
• Lawrence Kohlberg: Developed the Moral Development Theory.

Motivation

• Clark Hull: Developed the Drive Reduction Theory.
• Mcclelland: Developed the Need Theory.
• Carol Dweck: Developed the Self-Theory of Motivation.
• Abraham Maslow: Developed the Hierarchy of Needs.
• Richard Ryan & Edward Deci: Developed the Self-Determination Theory.

Emotion

• William James: Developed the James-Lange Theory of Emotion.
• Carl Lange: Developed the James-Lange Theory of Emotion.
• Walter Canon: Developed the Canon-Bard Theory of Emotion.
• Philip Bard: Developed the Canon-Bard Theory of Emotion.
• Charles Darwin: Developed the Facial Feedback Hypothesis.

Memory

• Hermann Ebbinghaus: Developed the first attempt to understand memory.
• Atkinson & Shiffrin: Developed the Multistore Model.
• Miller: Developed the Chunking Theory.
• Baddeley: Developed the Working Memory Model.
• Craik and Lockhart: Developed the Levels of Processing Theory.

Other Theories

• Le Doux: Developed the Direct & Indirect Route of Amygdala.
• Charles Darwin: Developed the 7 Facial Expressions.
• Richard Solomon: Developed the Opponent Process Theory.
• Murray: Developed the Complex System of Needs.

Vision

• Hermann Von Helmholtz: Developed the Place Theory.
• Georg Von Bekesy: Developed the Frequency Theory.
• Ernest Wever: Developed the Volley Principle.
• Charles Bray: Developed the Theory of Sound Localization.
• Dr. Alan Hirsch: Developed the Taste and Smell Theory.

Intelligence

• Charles Spearman: Developed the Two-Factor Theory.
• Guilford: Developed the Divergent and Convergent Thinking Theory.
• Howard Gardner: Developed the Multiple Intelligence Theory.
• Robert Sternberg: Developed the Triarchic Theory.
• Cattell-Horn-Carrol: Developed the CHC Theory.

Language

• Noam Chomsky: Developed the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) Theory.
• Jean Piaget: Developed the Theory of Language Development.
• Lev Vygotsky: Developed the Theory of Language Development.
• Sapir-Whorf: Developed the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis.
• Rosch-Heider: Developed the Cognitive Universalism Theory.

Other

• Edward De Bono: Developed the Lateral Thinking Theory.
• Hernstein: Developed the Bell Curve Theory.
• Murray: Developed the Bell Curve Theory.
• Hans Henning: Developed the 4 Basic Tastes Theory.
• Linderman: Developed the 5th Taste Theory.