Do you know who is the most famous psychologist in history? Well…no one really knows because there is more than one right answer! Who you pick as the most famous psychologist often depends on your area of interest. Are you into developmental psychology? Maybe clinical psychology is your thing. The area of study you like the most can determine who you think is the best psychologist of all time!
- Who are some of the most famous psychologists in history?
- Who are some of the most famous psychologists alive right now?
- Who are some famous female psychologists?
- What are some famous psychologists and their theories?
- What are some quotes by famous psychologists?
Famous Psychologists in History
Another reason it is hard to pick the most famous psychologist is that there are so many to choose from throughout history! Psychology has been a field of study since the late 1800s when Wilhelm Wundt started a laboratory research group just for psychology (the very first!) at the University of Leipzig in Germany. Sigmund Freud was working on his famous psychoanalytic studies around the turn of the 20th century. Ivan Pavlov did his experiments with dogs right before the 20th century. John Watson and Rosalie Raynor conditioned Little Albert to be afraid of white, furry animals around 1920, and B. F. Skinner created his Skinner box experiment a little later in the 1900s.
A psychologist is a scientist who focuses on studying one or more areas of human behavior or mental processes.
Here are some other famous people in psychology with a little bit about them and their area of study:
Top left to right: Freud, Dix, Pavlov, Calkins Bottom left to right: James, Washburn, Jung, Piaget. Wikimedia Commons
Famous Psychologists Today
All the psychologists we have talked about so far are from the past. What about psychologists who are alive today? Who are they, and what kind of work do they do? Martin Seligman (born in 1942) is a great example of a famous psychologist who is alive today. He is one of the key researchers in the field of positive psychology, and he also did some famous experiments on learned helplessness.
Howard Gardner (born in 1943), Steven Pinker (born in 1954), and Paul Ekman (born in 1934) are a few other examples of famous psychologists alive today. Gardner is known for his theory of multiple intelligences. Pinker has written many works on cognitive psychology, language, and developmental psychology. Ekman is a pioneer in the study of emotions. He developed the idea of microexpressions and studied the biology of facial expressions.
Robert Sternberg (born in 1949) is another famous name in cognitive psychology. He developed the triarchic theory of intelligence. We could also talk about Albert Bandura here, the famous psychologist who developed social learning theory, but he sadly passed away in 2021. He played a huge role in many different subfields of psychology: cognitive, social, clinical, and personality.
Do you remember hearing or reading about a famous prison experiment in the basement of Stanford University? That experiment was conducted by Philip Zimbardo (born in 1933) who is now a retired, honored professor of Stanford. He was born to Italian immigrants in America, and he knows what it is like to be a victim of stereotypes, prejudicial attitudes, and discrimination. Even though his prison experiment later became known for extreme ethical concerns, it was actually funded by the US government!
Famous Female Psychologists
Have you noticed that many of the psychologists we have talked about so far are men? There are some important women in the history of psychology, too. We mentioned two of them earlier: Mary Whiton Calkins and Margaret Floy Washburn. Both of these women lived during a time when women were still denied basic rights, like the right to vote.
Calkins was allowed to enter an all-male program at Harvard in 1890. When the male students found out that a woman had joined the program, they all dropped out! Calkins continued in the program, and she eventually completed all the requirements for a doctorate in psychology. When she was done, Harvard refused to grant her the degree she had earned. She was offered an equivalent degree from a woman’s college, but she refused to accept it on principle.
Both Calkins and Washburn served as presidents of the American Psychological Association. After Calkins was denied a doctorate degree in psychology, Washburn became the first woman to receive the degree. Washburn had the degree she worked so hard to earn, but she still faced gender discrimination in her field. Thankfully, gender equality has come a long way in the field of psychology since its early days.
In much of the Western world, women now earn more psychology doctorates than men!
Susan Blackmore, Elizabeth Loftus, and Brenda Milner are a few famous female psychologists alive today. Blackmore (born in 1951 in England) is famous for her research on parapsychology and consciousness. Loftus (born in 1944 in America) is a prominent researcher on memory. Milner (born in 1918…now 103 years old!) is considered the founder of neuropsychology. Her work has been so influential that she has received over 20 honorary degrees!
Famous Psychologists and Their Theories
As you can tell, there are far too many famous psychologists to mention them all. One way you can remember a famous psychologist is by connecting them to their field of study. Below you will find lists of famous psychologists organized based on their main field of study. You can learn more about them in other articles on our website!
Organizing psychologists based on their theories can help your brain remember and pick between different psychologists if you are asked a question about who developed what theory on your exam.
| Subfield of Psychology | Famous Psychologists |
School of Structuralism | Wilhelm Wundt Edward Bradley Titchener |
School of Functionalism | William James James Rowland Angell John Dewey |
Behaviorism | Ivan Pavlov B. F. Skinner Edward Thorndike John B. Watson Robert Rescorla |
Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic | Sigmund Freud Carl Jung Anna Freud |
Humanistic Psychology | Abraham Maslow Carl Rogers |
Motivation and Emotion | William James Alfred Kinsey Stanley Schachter Hans Selye |
Personality | Alfred Adler Paul Costa Robert McCrae |
Developmental Psychology | Diana Baumrind Harry Harlow Mary Ainsworth Lev Vygotsky Jean Piaget Erik Erikson Konrad Lorenz Moral Development Carol Gilligan Lawrence Kohlberg |
Biological Psychology | Carl Wernicke Paul Broca Sensation and Perception Gustav Fechner David Hubel Ernst Weber Torsten Wiesel John Garcia |
Cognitive Psychology | Noam Chomsky Hermann Ebbinghaus Wolfgang Köhler Elizabeth Loftus George A. Miller Edward Tolman Intelligence Charles Spearman Howard Gardner Robert Sternberg Alfred Binet Francis Galton Lewis Terman David Wechsler |
Social Psychology | Albert Bandura Leon Festinger Solomon Asch Stanley Milgram Philip Zimbardo |
Clinical Psychology | Aaron Beck Albert Ellis Mary Cover Jones Joseph Wolpe Dorothea Dix |
Some of these psychologists fall under more than one category. For instance, Sigmund Freud belongs under psychoanalytic, developmental, clinical, and personality.
Sigmund Freud and daughter Anna. Wikimedia Commons
Famous Psychologist Quotes
Here are a few interesting quotes by famous people in the history of psychology! These quotes help represent the wide diversity of thought and ideas in the field of psychology.
The healthy adult is one who can love and work."
Sigmund Freud (1935)1
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