~ Famous Psychologists ~

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Daniel Kahneman



“When you analyze happiness it turns out that the way you spend your time is extremely important”- Daniel Khaneman.

Daniel Khaneman is an Israeli-American psychologist who is well known for his ground-breaking works on decision making, behavioral economics, hedonic psychology and judgment of psychology. He was born on March 5th 1984 in TelAviv, Israel. He spent the early years of his life in Paris, France where he was brought up and raised by his immigrant parents. He acquired his PhD in psychology from University of California, Berkeley and previously did his B. Sc in Psychology from University of Hebrew, Israel.

He started his academic career as a lecturer in Psychology at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His first publication was “Pupil Diameter and Load on Memory” in a renowned Journal “Science”. It focused upon attention and visual perceptions. He also served as a visiting scientist at the University of Michigan as well as at the Applied Psychology Research Unit in Cambridge. He developed a cognitive basis for common human errors which is based upon heuristics and biases. He also proposed prospect theory which concentrates on real-world judgments of people in taking decisions and suggests that people choose alternatives when the outcomes of the alternatives they choose are known and use heuristics when making their decisions. The prospect theory earned him the prestigious Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. His theories presented on judgment and decision making is proposed in collaboration with Amos Tversky. Both of them published a series of articles representing their works in the general field of judgment and decision making. “Belief in the law of small numbers” was their first joint paper which got published in 1971. “Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases”, their second paper was also published in “Science” magazine, This paper introduced the concept and idea of anchoring which is the inclination of humans to rely to a great extent on the first information they receive regarding their decision-making. He observed that the phenomenon of anchoring takes place when people use the first available information without any further investigation to make judgments for their decisions.

Daniel Khaneman was bestowed with the Nobel Prize in Economics Sciences. He was also honored with the Grawemeyer Award for Psychology by the University of Louisvelle in 2003. He also received the honor of being the 101th Israeli of all times by a public poll conducted in Israel by a news channel YNET. Currently, he is serving as a professor emeritus of public affairs and psychology at Princeton’s University’s Woodrow Wilson School. He serves as a member of National Academy of sciences and many other prestigious institutions including the likes of The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Philosophical Society, The American Psychological Society, The Econometric Society and The Society of Experimental Psychologists. He also possesses entrepreneurial skills as he is also a co-founder of a philanthropy and business consulting company known as The Greatest Good. One of his greatest accolades includes Lifetime Contribution Award for the American Psychological Association.

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David Buss



David Buss is a professor of psychology at University of Texas, Austin. He is known for his evolutionary psychology research on mate selection with the basis on human sex differences. His profound works on human mating strategies defines and distinct his works in the field of psychology. Born on April 14th, 1953 he acquired his PhD in psychology from University of California, Berkeley.

He is most distinguished for his works and in depth researches in human mating strategies and their relationships, conflicts arising between the sexes, prestige, social reputation, status, emotional jealousy, homicide and most recently the issues related to stalking. David Buss along with K. H. Craik has also analyzed and investigated on how certain traits specifically make up a personality. He proposed the idea of Prototype theory into psychology of personality which says that traits are used as a categorization of a personality which means that how strongly a trait defines a certain personality. David buss differentiated between the short term and long term mating strategies. He used the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R) for determining that if the person is in favor of a long term serious relationship or a short term hookup. According to David Buss’s research along with his colleagues he concluded through the experiment that men who showed a woman’s face preferred a long term mating relationship whereas the other category of men who showed woman’s body have an inclination towards keeping a short term mating strategy. The same experiment was conducted with women but they revealed no specific feature to determine their mating strategy for David Buss and his team. According to their researches men and women face different challenges in terms of their role and gender which determines their behavior today. Women face the challenges of pregnancy, bringing up a child effectively enough to ensure his survival giving them the utmost care whereas men face the challenges of providing resources, gene transfers to the off springs and surviving through the uncertainty that becoming a parent brings with it.

David Buss has also devised Strategic Interference Theory (SIT) which states that men and women deal differently with intersexual deception. Women as emotional beings get more distressed over their partner’s involvement with others whereas men get emotionally worked up over their partner’s display of sexual infidelity and lies.

David Buss has the honor of being bestowed with the Distinguished Scientific Award for early career contribution to psychology as well as APA G. Stanley Hall Lectureship along with numerous other awards. He has also penned down numerous books related to his researches. One of his distinguished books, The Murderer Next Door presents an evolutionary perspective of modern theory of homicide. His many other books include The Dangerous Passion and The Evolution of Desire. He has also been involved with cross-cultural researches extensively as well as giving lectures throughout United States. One of his famous books Evolutionary Psychology: The new science of Mind has been published in its fourth edition in 2011.

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David McClelland



David McClelland was a well-known American psychological theorist who was the founder of Need Theory. Born on May 20th, 1917 in Mt. Vernon, New York, USA. He acquired his PhD in psychology from Yale University in 1941. Before that, he had obtained his bachelor of arts from Wesleyan University in 1938 and following year he had done his MA from University of Missouri. He had also served as a teacher at Connecticut College and Wesleyan University before becoming a faculty member at the prestigious Harvard University in 1956. He served Harvard University for thirty years as a chairman of the department of social relations.

David McClelland most famous theory of needs earned him many prestigious accolades and awards. The theory of needs is found in different degrees in almost all the workers and managers. He categorized the need theory into three sub-categories which are known as the need for achievement (n-ach), the need for authority and power (n-pow) and the need for affiliation (n-affil).The need for achievement defines the type of personality who has an innate desire to achieve, which seeks achievement through the attainment of realistic and possible but challenging goals, the second type of person who has innate need for power and authority. He has the desire to be influential and effective through power and authority. He wants to gain a personal reputation and social status by fulfilling his need for exercising power. The third need is the need for affiliation which says that a person with this need is motivated by maintaining friendly relations and effective interactions with the people. People with this need also possess great team playing capabilities. They have a need to be liked and becoming popular. McClelland also suggested that most of the people have multiple characteristics, the motivational needs or mix determines a person’s behavior and affects to a great deal his working style and behavior. He proposed that a manager who has a strong need for affiliation will eventually fall out in achieving his objective as he will concentrate more on maintaining friendly and cordial relations with his employees whereas a manger who has greater need for power and authority maintains strong work ethics and commitment to his work. They are attracted to attaining leadership roles in the organization but they cannot maintain flexibility and friendliness in dealing with his employees and colleagues. David McClelland also suggested that people having great motivation for achievement can become the best leaders but their setback is that they expect their staff to be driven towards achievement like them which of course, is not possible. McClelland firmly believed that people who have need for achievement make things happen.

He has the honor of being awarded for distinguished scientific contributions by the American Psychological Association. He has penned down several books on his works, observations and researches. Most of his books are related to achievement motivation. The Achievement Motive, and, The Achieving Society are two of the many other books and publications by him. David McClelland died on March 27, 1998.

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Edgar Schein



Edgar Henry Schein is recognized as one of the most prominent psychologists in the field of organizational development. It is not wrong to say that he is well known as an American business theorist due to his extensive works in the field of organizational development has played an important role in the determination of variables that form an important position in the study and procedures of a sophisticatedly developed organization. His educational background comprises of studying at three prestigious universities including University of Chicago, Stanford University and Harvard University, from where he earned his PhD in Social Psychology.

Born on March 5th, 1928 in Zurich, he is an American by nationality. According to the theories of organizational development prepared by Edgar Schein an organization’s culture which is made up of the values and beliefs does not develop instantly, it is a long and intricate process which requires time and adjustments on the part of employees especially to develop and take the organizations to the newer levels. Edgar Schein’s theories in the field of organizational development comprises of the studies conducted on group process consultation, organizational culture and career development. The famous terminology of corporate culture was also coined by him that reflects the collective norms and behavior of people forming an organization. The Schein’s model of organizational culture presented in 1980’s comprises of three different levels an organization culture. Schein identified and categorized them as artifacts and behaviors, espoused values and assumptions. Artifacts and behaviors are defined as elements that sets the behavioral norms and standards in an organization. It includes the dress codes, furniture and architecture, office humor that altogether reflects the culture prevailing in an organization. They are the visible elements that make up the corporate culture of an organization. Espoused values represents the company is represented in terms of its shared values and belief system. The third and the last component shared basic assumptions are known as the norms and behaviors that are embedded deep within the culture of an organization. These behaviors are taken for granted and very well integrated within the office dynamics that are hardly recognizable. The importance of Schein’s model is highlighted to understand the organizational culture prevailing at different levels. To bring about change in the organizational culture is one of the uphill tasks, it has to be managed with dedication and creativity as it is a very intricate process that requires complex interactions with humans and their environment.

As a distinguished psychologist in his field of research, he has won many notable accolades including the lifetime achievement award in workplace learning and performance of the American society for training directors, Award for career scholarship in 2000 as well as the well-deserved Marion Gislason Award for :eadership in executive development presented to him by the BU school of Management Executive Development Roundtable, again in 2002. Currently, he serves as a professional fellow at the prestigious American Psychological Association as well as the Academy of Management.

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Edward Thorndike



Edward Lee Thorndike was a well known an American psychologist. Born on 31st August 1874 in Massachusetts, United States he worked on animal behavior. He has the honor of laying the foundation for modern educational psychology with the help of his proposed theory on connectionism. Thorndike’s theory on learned behavior is formed on the basis of operant conditioning and classical conditioning. Also, employee exams and testing comprises of his major works based on solving industrial problems. He served as a member of the board of psychological corporation, he also has the honor of serving as the president of the prestigious American Psychological Association.

Edward Thorndike acquired his early education from The Roxbury Latin School. He completed professional degrees of BS and MA from Wesleyan College and Harvard University, respectively. Animal learning was the main area of his interest, while studying in Harvard with William James he set up an experiment to study animal learning. For this experiment he designed a puzzle box and placed the cat in it and the cat was allowed to escape to reach out for the fish. The cat used to stumble upon the lever first accidently but then it became a learned behavior for it through pressing the lever repeatedly. He devised the Law of Effect through this experiment. He soon found his interest in studying man upon which he spent his entire life. He obtained his PhD from Columbia University in 1969. His PhD thesis was supervised by James McKeen Cattell, the pioneer of psychometrics. He got employed at the College for women of Case Western Reserve at Cleveland. He was unhappy at his initial job but things became much better and happier for him when he started teaching psychology at Teacher’s College in Columbia University. This job worked wonders for him as he spent a major portion of his career teaching at this university. He studied mental testing, human learning and education during his lifelong tenure at Columbia University. He was the first psychologist to use nonhuman subjects in his thesis entitled as “Animal Intelligence: An Experimental Study of the Associative Processes in Animals”. He was also known as an expert in designing tests. While working for US Army during World War he designed the Alpha and Beta versions of tests now known as ASVAB. It is basically a multiple choice questions conducted under the supervision of United States military entrance processing command used to assess the qualifications needed to list the eligible candidates for United States Armed Forces.

Edward Thorndike played a remarkable role in contributing to the field of psychology. Animal psychology and behaviorism are his major fields of accomplishments including many others. He has won prestigious accolades as an accomplished psychologist including the designation of the president of American Psychological Association as well as the well deserved membership at National Academy of Arts in 1917. He died on August 9th, 1949.

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Elizabeth Loftus



Elizabeth Loftus is one of those eminent psychologists famous for her ground breaking works and contributions in fields of cognitive psychology and human memory. Born in Los Angeles on October 16th, 1944 she completed BA in Psychology and Mathematics from University of California, Los Angeles. After that she did her MA and PhD in 1970 from Stanford University. She started off her career by becoming a researcher at New School for social research in 1970. Misinformation effect and eye-witness testimony are her major ground breaking works in the fields of psychology.

Her theories also laid solid foundations for solving legal issues. She discovered that memory is amazingly delicate and imaginative which led to her works on malleability of the brains. Her researched on Semantic Information in Long Term Memory during first phase of her career in academics at New School For Social Research in New York City but she realized soon that she needs to work on subjects more relevant and important to social sciences. She became an assistant professor at University of Washington and started a brand new research on the functioning of memory in the real world which formed the basis for empirical studies in eyewitness testimony. Her research work entitled as “Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction” suggested through real life observations that the words of the questions asked changes the memories of the subjects. Then, she further investigated that if questions were asked ahead or if the information provided to the subjects is misguiding then does it affect profoundly on human memory? In order to investigate this research question she designed and developed misinformation effect paradigm which showed that human memory is highly malleable and highly receptive and open to the suggestions presented by the outside world and sources. The incorrect information presented to the subjects will lead them to identifying and revealing the correct information and facts. The misinformation effect gained fame and became one of the most well-known effects in the field of psychology that had a great influence on the later psychological developments in the field of Cognitive Psychology representing the intricacies of human memory. Her work on this theory also generated many follow-up studies that became the examining factors for studying the changing conditions of memory. The eye-witness memory is also one of her highly effective theory that has made her solve numerous legal issues in the courts. She published an article in 1974 discussing the relationship between observations and findings from the analysis of psychological sciences as well as the witness testimony in a trial of a murder case observed by her in the court. She also conducted profound studies and investigations on false memories.

Though some of her research work and experimental techniques has received criticisms but still she has done very remarkable researches concerning human memory and cognitive psychology. She has earned numerous honors and awards including the well known Grawemeyer award in 2005 and National Academy of Arts to name a few. She has also earned fellowship at the Royal society of Edinburgh through her remarkable works. In 2012 she received the William T Rossiter Award from the Forensic Mental Health Association of California.

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Erich Fromm



“Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.” ~Erich Fromm

Erich Fromm was a acclaimed German social psychologist, humanistic philosopher, democratic socialist, sociologist and psychoanalyst. Born on March 23rd 1900 in Germany, this accomplished psychologist was deeply associated with Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. He was the only child of orthodox Jewish parents who spent a rather unhappy childhood. He acquired his academic education from University of Frankfurt am Main for two semesters in the field of jurisprudence. Later, he went on to study at University of Heidelberg where he switched his field from jurisprudence to sociology under the guidance of Heinrich Rickert, Karl Jaspers and Alfred Weber. He obtained his PhD in sociology from university of Heidelberg in 1922 anf began practicing as a clinical psychologist. He also acquired his psychological training from Frankfurt Institute of Social Research.

His first work regarding psychological theory is presented in his paper entitled as Escape From Freedom which highlights his work in political psychology. His second most important paper Man for Himself: An inquiry into The Psychology of Ethics was an extension of his work on the first research paper. Erich Fromm’s theory on human character was based on the theories presented in these two papers. According to him freedom is the most central trait of human nature. Free will or freedom defines a human being but it is a difficult attribute to achieve and incorporate in one’s life because, surprisingly, many people in the society try to escape from freedom. Enrich Fromm categorized the three ways through which human beings try to escape from freedom; these categories are known as authoritarianism, destructiveness and automaton conformity. Authoritarianism signifies the escape from freedom by deliberately avoiding it through accepting an authoritarian system, by becoming a part of it and accepting the authority’s ways whether right or wrong. The other way is becoming the authoritarian power and exercising unjust power over others through imposing a structural system. Both of these ways of escaping from freedom represents authoritarianism. The second category is destructiveness which represents suicides, violence, humiliation, criminal activities, terrorism and other destructive and hateful activities to escape from freedom. The third and last category is automaton conformity which is defined as confirming and accepting of the culture, ways and behaviour to blend within the cultural surroundings.

The three stages of escape from freedom was presented by Erich Fromm in his book in which he suggested that man is born with the nature of freedom but he tries to escape from it mainly because freedom comes with responsibility and people in the society tend to be conformist rather than accepting the responsibility of being free. Erich Fromm was also an accomplished writer. His books include Escape From Freedom and Man For Himself which is a collection of his psychological works and researches. He breathed his last on March 18th, 1980.

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Francis Galton



“Men who leave their mark on the world are very often those who, being gifted and full of nervous power, are at the same time haunted and driven by a dominant idea, and are therefore within a measurable distance of insanity” ~Francis Galton

Francis Galton was one of the most accomplished psychologist, anthropologist, explorer, meteorologist and geographer, statistician. He was the first psychologist who applied the use of statistical tools and methods to study human behavior and differences and their level of intelligence in analyzing his theories. He was also the first person who introduced the concept of collecting facts and data from human communities through conducting surveys and questionnaires which used in his studies on genealogy and biographies as part of his anthropometric studies. Galton was considered as a pioneer in eugenics which is the study to analyze and improve the genetic makeup of the population making up the society.

Born on February 16th, 1822 in Birmingham, England he was the cousin of Charles Darwin having the same grandfather Erasmus Darwin. He and his cousin played a significant role in the studies of medicine and science whereas their family occupation was gun manufacturing and banking that earned them great success. Francis Galton was an achiever from childhood. He was an exceptional child with marvelous capabilities and great intelligence. He started reading from age two and started reading Shakespeare for seeking pleasure as well as poetry to entertain himself. He started studying medicine in his teenage because his wanted to become a doctor. He started his medicine education at Birmingham’s General Hospital and King’s College, London but then he left the field of medicine to begin his study for becoming a mathematician at Cambridge University. But with the death of his father he became independent enough to pursue whatever field of study that intrigued his curiosity. He was an ardent traveler and explorer. His first journey was to Africa and Middle-East followed by Egypt and Sudan. Travelling became an inspiration for him to learn and explore about new destinations. He wrote a book named as “The Art of Travel: Or, Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries” in 1855 as an advice to the new travelers on how to travel fully to their advantage. Francis Galton also has the honor of inventing the first weather map depicting distinct climatic conditions over a certain geographical area. He wrote a book on the subject of weather and meteorology “Meteorgraphica”, which defined the methods of mapping the weather. He was strongly influenced by the works of Charles Darwin named as “The Origin of Species” through which Francis Galton analyzed and developed his own theories regarding the inheritance of traits.

He was a very active member of British Association for Advancement of Science. He presented many research papers in their meetings on a wide variety of subjects. His major works comprises of hereditary genius and inquiries into human faculties and development which discusses his theories regarding intelligence and genius. His notable awards were Darwin Wallace medal presented by Linnean society of London and Copley Medal among numerous others. He died on 17th January 1911.

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Fritz Perls



Fritz Perls was a well renowned German psychotherapist and psychiatrist known for his notable works on Gestalt therapy. The interconnection between the individual being and the environment that he interacts with on a daily basis is the main idea behind Gestalt therapy. Born on July 8th, 1893 in Germany Fritz Perls was associated with Esalen institute. During his tenure at the institute he developed the schools of thought related to gestalt psychology and gestalt theoretical psychotherapy. He identified the main idea behind gestalt therapy is self-awareness regarding one’s feelings, emotions, perceptions, sensations and bodily feelings as well as the necessity of learning the association of oneself with the surroundings that he is present in.

He was a medical doctor by profession as he chose to study medicine instead of law which was studied by his uncle. Perls started off his career by serving the German Army during World War I. Soon after this major event in the world history he graduated as medical doctor and began practicing as an assistant to Kurt Goldstein who used to cure soldiers suffering from brain injury. Slowly Fritz got interested towards studying psychoanalysis. He started studying this subject under the supervision of Wilhelm Reich. He got married to Lore Posner in 1930 and after marrige they moved to Netherlands and later to South Africa. He wrote a book entitled Ego, Hunger and Aggression along with his wife, though her name was not mentioned as the author she had contributed to a great deal in writing this book. Fritz Perls also served in South African Army from 1942 to 1946, during his tenure with the South African army he reached the rank of a captain. After this job he left for New York where he published his works and findings on gestalt therapy. The key concept behind gestalt therapy is that it completely solves the problems of the individuals that are affected from sadness and depression to the extent that it hampers their growth and productivity in life.

The idea of gestalt therapy is to cure the problems that are hampering the growth and productivity that is coming in the success and prosperity of an individual’s life. Everyone has a right to live a fulfilled and satisfied life and gestalt therapy is the way of adopting the lifestyle and reforming the lives of individuals to make them ambitious and prosperous in order to get more out of their lives and due to this factor gestalt therapy is also known as humanistic type of psychotherapy. Conflicting ideas were also presented in gestalt therapy which caused rift between the experts practicing the gestalt therapy and led them to part their ways. Isadore Form, who was a teacher in New York assessed and presented about the low potential possessed by gestalt therapy. His views were also shared by the co-founders of Cleveland Institute but many others proposed gestalt as a way of leading a happy and satisfied life. One of the Fritz Perls’ renowned publication is Finding Self Through Gestalt Therapy. He died on march 14th,1970 in Chicago.

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G. Stanley Hall



“Man is largely a creature of habit, and many of his activities are more or less automatic reflexes from the stimuli of his environment.” – G. Stanely Hall

G. Stanely hall was a well-renowned American psychologist and educator. Born on 1st February 1844, in Ashfield, Masacheutteus he attended and graduated from William’s college in 1867. After that, he went on to study at the union theological seminary. He got inspired by the exceptional work of Wilhelm Wundt named as principles of physiological psychology. He acquired Ph.D in psychology from Harvard University under the supervision of Professor William James. He has the honor of being awarded with the first doctorate in psychology in America.

He wanted to start his career in academics after graduation but when he graduated there were no vacancy in the university. Then, he went on to study at the University of Berlin in Europe and worked at the Wundt’s Laboratory in 1879 for a short span of time. He started off his career as a teacher of philosophy and English at Antioch College in Ohio. He also taught history of philosophy at William’s College, the same college from where he graduated. He also has the honor of giving a series of valuable lectures at the prestigious John Hopkins University as well as Harvard University. Finally, he got successful in securing an academic position at John Hopkins teaching pedagogy and psychology. Hall also published a book on religious psychology entitled as “Jesus, the Christ, in the light of psychology” which presented the information and knowledge about Jesus in psychological terms. He is the pioneer of the first formal American psychology laboratory.

As an educationist he presented the idea that instead of preparing students for college, the high school should focus on the development of the mental capacity of students. He opposed and criticized on the traditional teaching style of the high schools which has handicapped the minds of the adolescents and has also moved them far away from free learning. He also has the honor of being the first president of APA (American Psychological Association) as well as the pioneer of American Journal of Psychology. He established Clark University and served as its president for 31 years.

G. Stanley Hall  proposed a lot of theories on childhood development and worked significantly on gauging the numerous effects of the education system on the minds of adolescents. He phrased the terminology “storm and stress” in defining the phase of adolescence.  According to his propositions a child’s mental capabilities develop just like his forefathers and he inherits their behavior and learning style. He also gave the concept of racial eugenics which means the genetic characteristics of certain race has an influence on its population intelligence, behavior and personality traits. Hall has also played a significant role in anomalistic psychology which is the psychology of behavior of humans and their experiences in connection to some paranormal activities. He was a very significant contributor to education literature. Aspects of German Culture, Hints toward a Select and Descriptive Bibliography of Education co-authored with John M. Mansfield and the Contents of Children’s Minds on Entering School are few of the many books penned down by him. He died on April 24th, 1924.

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George Kelly



George Alexander Kelly was a well-known American therapist, psychologist, educationist and personality theorist. He was the pioneer of cognitive clinical psychology and was famously recognized for his theory on personality known as Personal Construct Theory. According to the theory different people have different paradigms of viewing the world as the world is a diverse place where people hold different values, morals and cultural upbringing. Born on April 28th, 1905 in a farm close to Perth he received his high school education from Parks College and attended Friends University from where he obtained bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and physics. Later on, he went to University of Kansas to obtain a master’s degree in sociology as he was very keen on studying the social problems prevailing in the society. He proposed thesis was on the topic of worker’s leisure activities where he analyzed the nature and types of interest and activities that keeps the workforce engaged as well as entertained in their free time.

He started his academic career by teaching at various universities and institutions on a wide range of subjects including speech-making, Americanization and many others. He had the honor of studying as an exchange student at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He wrote a thesis as a requirement for completing his bachelor of education degree at the university. The thesis was about the prediction of teaching success. He returned to United States for continuing his doctoral as well as graduate degree in psychology studies at State University of Iowa. His thesis dissertation was related to speech and reading disabilities. George Kelly also worked in school psychology before the horrible event of World War II, designing and developing a program of traveling clinics which served and assisted as a training ground for his students.

He also possessed a very keen interest in learning and applying clinical diagnosis. It was during this phase of t his life that Kelly left behind his interest in psychoanalytic approach to human personality because according to his views people were more troubled and distressed by natural disasters than any psychological issue affecting their mental health negatively. Kelly served as an aviation psychologist where he was responsible for designing and developing the training programs for the local pilots. After that, he served as a professor and director of clinical psychology at Ohio State University for 20 years. It is at this university that Kelly developed one of his well renowned personality theory known as the Psychology of Personal Constructs which was published in 1955. It is a psychotherapeutic approach to help patients analyze their constructs which make up their perception to view and analyze the world and people around them. The constructs are unique to every individual and made up of their social situations and experiences. George Kelly gave the concept of distorted constructs which says that the construction system of an individual has failed to adapt to the new system and does not work appropriately and rationally to predict social events and situations.

George Kelly had the honor of being elected as the president of the Clinical and the Consulting Divisions at the prestigious American Psychological Association and President of the American Board of Examiners in Professional Psychology providing his in depth analysis and valuable knowledge to the field of psychology. He breathed his last on March 6th, 1967.

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Gordon Allport



“So many tangles in life are ultimately hopeless that we have no appropriate sword other than laughter.” – Gordon W. Allport

Gordon Allport was a very well-known American psychologist who laid the foundations for personality psychology. According to his personality theories every individual is unique and so his personality and his personality should be analyzed in the present circumstances and context rather than the past as personality continuously evolves rather than remaining stagnant throughout the lifetime.

Born on November 11th, 1897 in Montezuna, Indiana he acquired his early education from the public schools of Cleveland, Ohio after moving there with his family. His father was a country doctor and his mother was a school teacher. They practiced the protestant religion as well the “protestant work ethic” which stresses upon the importance of hard work and diligence. Gordon Allport was known a studious but shy child who often remained isolated in his early years cause to his nature. He completed high school from Glenville high school with outstanding grades and obtained scholarship to study at the prestigious Harvard University. It was difficult for him to adjust into the environment of Harvard University but nevertheless, he earned his A.B in economics and philosophy from there in 1919. Regardless of the degree earned he was always interested in studying social and personality psychology so he pursued that interest informally by running a boy’s club in Boston as well as volunteering as a probation officer helping out foreign students and war workers. He started off his career by teaching economics and philosophy at Robert college in Istanbul, Turkey for a year and then he came back to Harvard to study for his Ph.D degree in psychology. He published his first research paper entitled “Personality Traits: Their Classification and Measurement” co-written by his brother Floyd Henry Allport in 1921. Gordon Allport completed his master’s degree in 1921 under the supervision of Herbert S. Langfield followed by Ph.D in 1922.

Gordon Allport’s profound and excessive interest in studying personality led him to study every single trait that define and make up a unique persona. He selected every single word from the dictionary that defined a person and categorized those 4500 words into three levels. These words defined individual differences based on three levels known as cardinal traits, central traits and secondary traits. Cardinal traits are a set of traits that defines and molds up a person’s long term behavior which would assist him in pursuing what he wants. Central traits is the basic innate characteristic of a person which is learned or adopted like honesty. Secondary traits defined the complexity of a personality as it is revealed in certain situations. Allport proposed some well known theories and approaches to study the complex structures and traits that make up a person. He gave the concept of value scales and strongly negated the concept of psychoanalytic approach for studying the personality because he suggested that psychoanalytic approach is a behavioral approach that cannot be used to study a personality. He died on October 9th 1967 leaving behind an unmatched legacy in the field of personality psychology.

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Hans Eysenck



“I always felt that a scientist owes the world only one thing, and that is the truth as he sees it” – Hans Eysenck.

Hans Eysenck was a German psychologist known for his works in the field of psychology regarding the development of intelligence and personality theories. Besides that, he has also worked in numerous fields of psychology proposing various ideas and theories. Born on 4th march 1916 in Berlin, German Empire. He was from a Jewish family who opposed the Nazi’s rule in Germany so he moved to England. Initially, he was unable to gain employment in England due to the fact that he was a German citizen but then he was able to acquire his PhD degree from University College, London in 1940. After that, he worked at the same university where he studied in the department of psychology under the supervision of Cyril Burt with whom Eysenck enjoyed a long term and cordial professional relationship. Eyseneck is well known for his works in personality, intelligence, psychiatry, differential psychology as well as building up a personality questionnaire known as “Eysenck personality Questionnaire”. He served as a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry in the well renowned King’s College, London. His tenure at this prestigious college started form 1955 and ended in 1983.

He made a significant contribution to the modern scientific theory regarding personality by designing and developing the “Distinct Dimensional Model of Personality” based upon the factor analytic summaries. He was a brilliant teacher who treated and cured mental illnesses very effectively and efficiently. He played a significant role in studying the relationship between genetics and IQ differences. His debate over this issues raised controversies that led him to being threatened by a woman protestor. Nevertheless, he was sure of the connection between genetic factors leading to intellectual differences in people. Eysenck did not back out but persisted and strongly believed on this connection and said in reply to the controversy “All the evidence to date suggests the . . . overwhelming importance of genetic factors in producing the great variety of intellectual differences which we observe in our culture, and much of the difference observed between certain racial groups”. In another research paper entitled as “The Inequality of Man” he highlighted his belief by saying that, “The whole course of development of a child’s intellectual capabilities is largely laid down genetically, and even extreme environmental changes . . . have little power to alter this development”.

Hans Eysenck was highly criticized for his racist beliefs and theories and these theories presented in his book “Race, Intelligence and Education (Towards a new society)” led to disrespect and insult of the community in general because they were of the view that intelligence is not genetic and developed over the course of life with learning and expanding one’s mind. He also developed psychometric scales known as Eysenck personality questionnaire and sensation seeking scales for studying various traits making up a personality. He penned down numerous books including Dimensions of Personality, The Scientific Study of Personality and The Structure of Human Personality to name a few. He died on 4th September 1997 in London.

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Harry Harlow



“So far as love or affection is concerned, psychologists have failed in their mission. The little we know about love does not transcend simple observation, and the little we write about it has been written better by poets and novelists.” – Harry Harlow, “The Nature of Love” ,1958.

Born on October 31st, 1905, Harry Harlow was an American by nationality. He was a famous psychologist best known for his works on social isolation, maternal separation and dependency needs which he proved through experiments on rhesus monkeys. These experiments highlighted the significance of motherly love, care and affection in social and cognitive development in children. He acquired his college education from Reed College in Oregon. After that, he got a chance to study at Stanford University where he opted to study English. He did not perform so well at that subject, so he switched over to psychology, and, declared that he would be majoring in psychology. Harlow studied under the supervision of Lewis Terman who was recognized for the development of Stanford- Binet IQ test. He  received his PhD in 1930 and then obtained the designation of professorship at University of Wisconsin in Madison. When the university failed to give him a separate laboratory for conducting psychological experiments he, with the assistance of his graduate students, made his own laboratory known as Primate laboratory.

Harry Harlow conducted several experiments on apes and monkey for proving  his theories on memory, cognitive processes and learning in infants. Harlow set up a nursery for rearing rhesus monkeys as part of his experimental studies. He separated the infant rhesus monkeys from their mothers and put them in that nursery setup in Primate lab. This method of bringing up the infant monkeys was called maternal deprivation. He inferred through these experiments that there is a lack of social development and normal behavior in new born monkeys who suffered from the phenomena of maternal deprivation. Harlow’s studies highlighted the importance of mother child bond in the healthy social and cognitive development of a child. His research studies were entitled “Maternal Care and Maternal Health” which got published in 1950 in John Bowlby’s report sponsored by World Health Organization. Bowlby’s study also concluded that a mother is essential to a child’s physical and mental development. This study stirred up a lot of debate, so Harlow proceeded to study further by creating substitute inanimate mothers made of wires and cloth, respectively. He provided the wired inanimate mothers with food in bottles whereas the cloth inanimate mothers were provided with nothing. Harlow observed that the infants would get attracted towards clothed inanimate mothers, despite, that the wired mothers had food. This experiment proved that an infant monkey’s physical contact with his mother was essential for nurturing his social, cognitive and physiological health.

Harlow had been bestowed with numerous honors and awards, including the National Medal of Science, Howard Crosby Warren Medal as well as the gold medal awarded by the prestigious American Psychological Association. Harry Harlow died on December 6th, 1981, in United States.

[MysteRy]

Henri Wallon



“It is dialectics that has given psychology its stability and its meaning, and which has delivered psychology from the alternatives of elementary materialism or vapid idealism, of crude substantialism or hopeless irrationalism. Through dialectics psychology is able to be at once a natural science and a human science, thus abolishing the division between consciousness and things that spiritualism has sought to impose on the universe. Marxist dialectics has enabled psychology to comprehend the organism and its environment, in constant interaction, as a single, unified whole.”- Henry Paul Wallon, Psychology and Dialectical Materialism, 1942.

Henry Paul Hyacinthe Wallon was an accomplished French psychologist, philosopher, teacher, neuro-psychiatrist and an active politician. Born on June 15th, 1879, in Paris he was a thorough Marxist whose major works were in the field of child psychology and development. His theories were greatly influenced by Marxism’s interpretations in relation to the individual, social, emotional and cognitive development of children. He was the first psychologist who applied the concept of dialectical materialism in his psychological studies.

According to the theories of Henry Wallon, child development is not a single step process. It takes place in continuous stages over a period of time. These stages are generally characterized by intelligence and affectivity.  He also presented the concept of social and environmental factors impacting on the development of a child. He proposed his analysis on a dialectical model which comprised of concepts defining interpersonal bonds, attitudes and emotions in the development of a child. According to Wallon’s theories the primary stages concerning child development comprises of the impulsive and emotional stage, the sensorimotor and projective stage, the personalism stage, the categorical stage and the adolescence stage. Each of these stages has been characterized by the unique aspects essential to the development of a child. The first stage is the impulsive stage that starts from the time when a baby is born and lasts up to twelve months. This stage is characterized by affectivity where the infant develops his internal feelings through his environment. Then, the personalism stage is dominated by affectivity in which a child learns through an adult whom he assumes to be his role model. The next stage is known as projective stage characterized by intelligence. It lasts from one to three years and is dominated by intelligence. The child gets stimulated by the external world by developing his practical and discursive intelligence. The third stage is the categorical stage in which a child develops the capabilities of acquiring knowledge through memory and voluntary attention. The last stage is the adolescence stage which is characterized by affectivity.

Henry Paul Wallon was also an active politician. He started his political career by joining the Socialist Political Party (SFIO) of French in 1931 as well as acquiring the membership of French Communist Party in 1942. He was also elected as Secretary of National Education in 1944.His literary works includes Psychological And Dialectical Materialism (1942), The Origins Of Thought In The Child (1947), Genetic Psychology (1956). He died on December 1st, 1962, in Paris.