A bachelor’s program should serve as the foundation of your education — but that doesn’t mean you should step into your first college classroom totally unprepared. If you are , you might want to start learning about some basic psychology history and theories before your courses begin, so you can have some context for the information provided in lectures and readings. With , you can take courses in various topics related to psychology and earn a certificate upon completion. To that end, here are some of the most important names in psychology for you to know, both at the beginning of your psychology education and throughout your psychology career:
Wilhelm Wundt
One of the first men of science to separate psychology into its own discipline, Wundt wrote the world’s first psychology textbook in 1874 and opened the first laboratory for investigating psychology at the University of Leipzig. Wilhelm Wundt earned the title “the father of experimental psychology” by operationalizing introspection as a means of examining one’s own thoughts, emotions and behaviors.
Sigmund Freud
Inarguably the most famous figure in psychology, Freud is the father of psychoanalysis. Unlike psychologists who came before, Freud was focused on investigating the mind through talk therapy, which he believed would provide insight into the workings of the unconscious mind. Though most of Freud’s theories have been , his ideas remain influential inside the field and in Western culture at large.
Mary Whiton Calkins
Today, are women — but that was not always the case. Mary Whiton Calkins was only the second woman ever to complete the work necessary for a PhD in Psychology, but because Harvard did not admit women, she was denied her degree. Still, Calkins served as the first female president of the American Psychological Association and provided countless valuable scientific contributions to the field.
Kurt Lewin
One of the pioneering voices of the nature versus nurture debate, Lewin took a firm stance in the nurture camp. His experimental work on human behavior determined that the interaction between an individual and their environment developed and solidified a person’s personality. Coining terms like “group dynamics” and “sensitivity training,” Lewin developed theories that are still incredibly useful today in the field of industrial/organizational psychology.
Jean Piaget
One of the first psychologists to focus on child psychology, Jean Piaget discovered that children’s psychological processes differ dramatically from those of adults. Thus, Piaget’s experiments form the foundation of the field of developmental psychology — and his campaigns for social progress led to widespread education throughout childhood.
Carl Rogers
Prior to the work of Carl Rogers, talk therapy was utilized as a tool to ensure psychologists could assess patients’ needs adequately. As a humanist, Rogers developed client-centered therapy, which saw clients as equal partners in the therapy process and thus proportionately responsible for their success (or failure). Eventually, Rogers’s work created the positive psychology movement, which encourages psychologists and clients to focus on strengths as opposed to disabilities and illnesses.
Erik Erikson
Though Erik Erikson began his career as a Neo-Freudian, his career resulted in the development of a theory of personality that runs directly counter to Freud’s ideas. Erikson’s eight-stage theory suggests that personality evolves over a lifetime and that one’s identity is constantly in flux. In fact, Erikson is credited with bringing attention to the concept of identity, which is so prominent in modern psychology study.
B.F. Skinner
B.F. Skinner was one of the most prolific American psychologists of the 20th century. Skinner popularized behavioral psychology, ardently arguing that human actions are always a response to environmental cues. Interestingly, Skinner did not believe in the concept of free will, and his efforts to educate the public on positive and negative reinforcement have allowed this information to be among the most widely accepted psychological concepts today.
Aaron Beck
Aaron Beck might not have innovated cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), but he did revolutionize the practice and develop the CBT known and utilized today. This form of psychological treatment helps to rewire the brain’s cognitive processes to develop healthier and more practical ways of thinking and behaving. CBT practice might help an individual with .
Albert Bandura
Bridging behaviorism and cognitive psychology, Albert Bandura suggests that it is observation of others’ behavior in addition to response to environmental stimuli that creates a person’s cognitive processes and behavior. Bandura remained a prominent voice in the psychology field until his recent death.
By no means are these the only names in psychology worth knowing. Over the course of your studies, you are likely to encounter countless hundreds of influential psychologists with valuable theories of the mind — but you might encounter the 10 above more often than any others.
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