Every Theorist, Psychologist, Physician, and Professional has his or her own unique history.  When reading about them it often becomes clear from where their theories and interests derived.  Freud for example was his mother's favorite, Jung spoke of voices speaking to him, and Adler felt a strong need to overcome inferiority due to a life threatening illness. Learn about the most influential people in psychology below:

Cognitive Distortions: 22 Examples & Worksheets (& PDF)

Aaron Beck

Aaron Beck, MD 1921-2021 Aaron Beck was born on July 18, 1921, in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the youngest of five children and grew up in a Jewish family ...
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Abraham Maslow

Abraham Maslow

Abraham Maslow 1908-1970 Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist born in Brooklyn, NY. He taught at several universities in the New York area and perhaps best known for his belief ...
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Albert Bandura

Albert Bandura

Albert Bandura 1925- Albert Bandura, and American psychologist born in Alberta, Canada. He received his Master's degree from the University of British Columbia in 1951 and his doctorate a year ...
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Albert Ellis

Albert Ellis

Albert Ellis 1913 - Ellis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and received his Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University. He taught for several years at Rutgers and then entered private ...
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Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler 1870-1937 Alfred Adler was born in Vienna Austria as the second of six children. Much of his career was molded from childhood experiences, particularly an incident when he ...
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Alfred Binet

Alfred Binet

Alfred Binet 1857 - 1911 Alfred Binet was both a psychologist and a lawyer. His greatest accomplishment in the field of psychology lead to what we now call the Intelligence ...
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B. F. Skinner

B. F. Skinner

B. F. Skinner 1904-1990 Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born in a small Pennsylvania town. His father was an attorney and his mother a housewife. His family life was described as ...
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Carl Jung

Carl Jung

Carl Jung 1875 - 1961 Born in Kesswil, Switzerland, Carl Jung was trained as a psychiatrist after receiving his M.D. from Basel University. He then began research on psychoanalytic techniques ...
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Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers 1902-1987 Carl Rogers was a Humanistic Psychologist who is most known for his approach to psychological treatment and his belief in the genuine good in the individual. He ...
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Edward Thorndike

Edward Thorndike

Edward Thorndike 1874-1949 Edward Thorndike is best known for his work with animal research, spending the majority of his career at Teacher's College, Columbia University. He is most famous for ...
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Emil Kraepelin

Emil Kraepelin

Emil Kraepelin 1855-1925 Emil Kraepelin was a psychiatrist who studied the description and classification of mental disorders, leading to what we now call the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental ...
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Erik Erikson

Erik Erikson

Erik Erikson 1902-1994 Erik Erikson was born in Frankfurt, Germany and studied psychology under Anna Freud (Sigmund Freud's daughter) at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute. He moved to the United States ...
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Hans Eysenck

Hans Eysenck

Hans Eysenck 1916-1997 Hans Eysenck is probably best known as a controversialist. He has received acclaim and criticism from colleagues and seems to strive more from the latter. Born the ...
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Harry Harlow

Harry Harlow

Harry Harlow 1905-1981 Harry Harlow was born in Fairfield, Iowa and was educated in the field of Ethology, or the study of primates. He spent his entire professional career teaching ...
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Henry A. Murray

Henry A. Murray

Henry A. Murray 1893 - 1988 Henry Murray taught at Harvard University for over 30 years and like his psychoanalytic predecessors, Freud and Jung, he believed that personality could be ...
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Herman Ebbinghaus

Herman Ebbinghaus

Herman Ebbinghaus 1850 - 1909 Hermann Ebbinghaus was born in Bremen, Germany. He received his education, including a Ph.D. from the University of Bonn. In 1880 he published his first ...
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Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov 1849-1936 A Physiologist by training, Ivan Pavlov's most famous experiment in psychology began as a study of digestion. Although very concerned with biases and controlling for variables, during ...
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Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget 1896 - 1980 Jean Piaget was born in Switzerland and by age 10 had already begun his professional career as a researcher and writer. He was interested in ...
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John Watson

John Watson

John Watson 1878 - 1958 John Watson is considered the father of behaviorism due to his opposition to the mainstream psychological view of the unconscious and psychoanalytic thought. To the ...
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Max Wertheimer

Max Wertheimer

Max Wertheimer 1880-1943 Max Wertheimer is considered the founder of Gestalt Psychology. He studied law for several years before graduating with his degree in philosophy. He served as a professor ...
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Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud 1856-1939 Sigmund Freud was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1856. His family moved to Vienna when he was four, where he spent the majority of his life ...
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Wilhelm Wundt

Wilhelm Wundt

Wilhelm Wundt 1832-1920 Considered the father of modern psychology, Wilhelm Wundt studied medicine in his native Germany before his interests began to lean more toward physiology and psychology. His main ...
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William James

William James

William James 1842 - 1910 William James was born in New York City. His family lived in several countries affording James a multicultural education, including schools in the U.S., England, ...
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