PROMINENT PHILOSOPHERS and THEORISTS
 
  
Wilhelm Wundt is the Father of Modern Psychology, was a
German physician, physiologist, philosopher, and professor,
known today as one of the founding figures of modern
psychology. Wundt, who noted psychology as a science apart
from philosophy and biology, was the first person ever to call
himself a psychologist.
 
Sigmund Freud is the Father of Psychoanalysis and
Psychosexual Theory. He was an Austrian neurologist and the
founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating
psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a
psychoanalyst. Freud was born to Galician Jewish parents in
the Moravian town of Freiberg, in the Austrian Empire.
 
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi is the Father of Modern
Education. He was a Swiss pedagogue and educational
reformer who exemplified Romanticism in his approach. He
founded several educational institutions both in German- and
French-speaking regions of Switzerland and wrote many
works explaining his revolutionary modern principles of
education.
 
Ivan Pavlov is the proponent of classical conditioning theory
and he was a Russian physiologist known primarily for his
work in classical conditioning. From his childhood days Pavlov
demonstrated intellectual curiosity along with an unusual
energy which he referred to as "the instinct for research".
Inspired by the progressive ideas which D. I.
 
Burrhus Frederic Skinner is the proponent for operant
conditioning (Instrument), commonly known as B. F. Skinner,
was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor,
and social philosopher. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of
Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his
retirement in 1974.
 
Edward Lee Thorndike is the proponent for the Laws of
Learning (law of readiness, law of exercise & law of effect).
He was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire
career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on
comparative psychology and the learning process led to the
theory of connectionism and helped lay the scientific
foundation for educational psychology.
 
Albert Bandura is the proponent for social cognitive learning
theory (Modelling), he was a Canadian- American psychologist
who is the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social
Science in Psychology at Stanford University.
 
David Ausubel was an American psychologist. His most
significant contribution to the fields of educational psychology,
cognitive science, and science education learning was on the
development and research on advance organizers since 1960
and the proponent for his Meaningful Learning Theory.
Jerome Bruner is responsible human cognitive psychology
and cognitive learning theory in educational psychology. He
was an American psychologist who made significant
contributions to human cognitive psychology and cognitive
learning theory in educational psychology. Bruner was a
senior research fellow at the New York University School of
Law.
Kurt Levin mastered Life Space Concept, known as one of
the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied
psychology in the United States. The approach, developed by
Kurt Lewin, is a significant contribution to the fields of social
science, psychology, social psychology, organizational
development, process management, and change
management. His theory was expanded by John R. P. French
who related it to organizational and industrial settings.
Wolfgang Kohler specialized in Insight Learning or Problem
Solving by Insight, was a German psychologist and
phenomenologist who, like Max Wertheimer, and Kurt Koffka,
contributed to the creation of Gestalt psychology. Insight
learning is perhaps the greatest contribution Wolfgang
Kohler made to psychology. Building off the influence of
Gestalt psychology, Kohler discovered that learning can
occur when we gain insight into an entire situation, as
opposed to focusing only on an individual part.
Urie Bronfenbrenner - Ecological Systems Theory. (1917-
2005) developed the ecological systems theory to explain how
everything in a child and the child's environment affects how
a child grows and develops. He labeled different aspects or
levels of the environment that influence children's
development, including the: Microsystem. He was a Russian-
born American developmental psychologist who most was
known for his ecological systems theory of child development.
His scientific work and his assistance to the United States
government helped in the formation of the Head Start
program in 1965.
Sandra Bem - Gender Schema Theory. He was an American
psychologist known for her works in androgyny and gender
studies. Her pioneering work on gender roles, gender
polarization and gender stereotypes led directly to more equal
employment opportunities for women in the United States.
Howard Gardner - Theory of Multiple Intelligence.
He believed that the conventional concept of intelligence was
too narrow and restrictive and that measures of IQ often miss
out on other "intelligences" that an individual may possess.
He was an American developmental psychologist and the John
H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and
Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education at
Harvard University.
 
Elliot Turiel – Domain Based Moral Education and was an
American psychologist and Chancellor’s Professor at the
Graduate School of Education at the University of California,
Berkeley. He teaches courses on human development and its
relation to education.
 
Robert J. Sternberg - Triarchic Theory of Intelligence. These
three examples exemplify Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory
on intelligence. The triarchic theory describes three distinct
types of intelligence that a person can possess. Sternberg
calls these three types practical intelligence, creative
intelligence, and analytical intelligence. He was an American
psychologist and psychometrician. He is Professor of Human
Development at Cornell University. Prior to joining Cornell,
Sternberg was president of the University of Wyoming.
 
Lawrence Kohlberg - Moral Development Theory.
The Theory of Moral Development is a very interesting
subject that stemmed from Jean Piaget's theory of
moral reasoning. Developed by psychologist Lawrence
Kohlberg, this theory made us understand
that morality starts from the early childhood years and can
be affected by several factors. He was an American
psychologist best known for his theory of stages of moral
development. He served as a professor in the Psychology
Department at the University of Chicago and at the Graduate
School of Education at Harvard University.
 
Erik Erikson - Psychosocial Development Theory. He was a
German-American developmental psychologist and
psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychological
development of human beings. He may be most famous for
coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T. Erikson, is a
noted American sociologist.
 
Maria Montessori - Montessori Method, Transfer of Learning.
She was an Italian physician and educator best known for the
philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing
on scientific pedagogy. Montessori is a method of
education that is based on self-directed activity, hands-on
learning and collaborative play. In Montessori classrooms
children make creative choices in their learning, while the
classroom and the teacher offer age-appropriate activities to
guide the process.
 
Edward Paul Torrance - Creativity Problem Solving and
considered to be the Father of Creativity. He was an American
psychologist from Milledgeville, Georgia. After completing his
undergraduate degree at Mercer University, Torrance acquired
a Master's degree at the University of Minnesota and then a
doctorate from the University of Michigan. His teaching career
spanned from 1957 to 1984.
 
Avram Noam Chomsky - Linguistic (Language) Acquisition
Device (LAD). He was an American linguist, philosopher,
cognitive scientist, historian, and social critic. Sometimes
described as "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is
also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the
founders of the field of cognitive science. Noam Chomsky is a
contemporary psychologist, linguist, and political activist
known both for his theory of innate grammar and for his
political activism.
 
Jean Piaget - Cognitive Development Theory. He was
famous through a series of stages, Piaget proposed four
stages of cognitive development: the sensorimotor,
preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational
period. He was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on
child development.
Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological
view are together called "genetic epistemology". Piaget placed
great importance on the education of children.
 
John Watson - Behaviorism Theory. He was an American
psychologist who established the psychological school of
behaviorism. Watson promoted a change in psychology
through his address Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it,
which was given at Columbia University in 1913. Through his
behaviorist approach, Watson conducted research on animal
behavior, child rearing, and advertising. In addition, he
conducted the controversial "Little Albert" experiment and the
Kerplunk experiment. Watson popularized the use of the
scientific theory with behaviorism.
 
Edward Chace Tolman - Purposive Behaviorism. He was an
American psychologist. Through Tolman's theories and works,
he founded what is now a branch of psychology known as
purposive behaviorism. Tolman also promoted the concept
known as latent learning first coined by Blodgett.
 
Bernard Weiner - Attribution Theory on Achievement. He
was an American social psychologist known for developing a
form of attribution theory which explains the emotional and
motivational entailments of academic success and failure.
Bernard Weiner got interested in the field of attribution after
the first studying achievement motivation.
 
Daniel Goleman- Emotional Intelligence. He was an author
and science journalist. For twelve years, he wrote for The
New York Times, reporting on the brain and behavioral
sciences. Emotional Intelligence (Goleman) 3 years ago •
Motivation Theories • Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is defined
as the ability to identify, assess, and control one's own
emotions, the emotions of others, and that of groups.
 
Hermann Ebbinghaus - law of forgetting. The forgetting
curve hypothesizes the decline of memory retention in time.
This curve shows how information is lost over time when
there is no attempt to retain it. A related concept is the
strength of memory that refers to the durability that memory
traces in the brain. He was a German psychologist who
pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known
for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing
effect. He was also the first person to describe the learning
curve. He was the father of the eminent neo-Kantian
philosopher Julius Ebbinghaus.
 
John Locke - Theory of Association. According to
other social contract theorists, when the government fails to
secure their natural rights (Locke) or satisfy the best
interests of society (called the "general will" in Rousseau),
citizens can withdraw their obligation to obey, or change the
leadership through elections or other means. He was an
English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of
the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly
known as the "Father of Liberalism".
 
Edward Thorndike - Belongingness and Connectionism. In
1898, was famous in psychology for his work on
learning theory that lead to the development of operant
conditioning within behaviorism. Whereas classical
conditioning depends on developing associations between
events, operant conditioning involves learning from the
consequences of our behavior. He was an American
psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers
College, Columbia University. His work on comparative
psychology and the learning process led to the theory of
connectionism and helped lay the scientific foundation for
educational psychology.
 
David McClelland - Needs Achievement Theory or Human
Motivation Theory. Human Motivation Theory states that
every person has one of three main driving motivators: the
needs for achievement, affiliation, or power. These motivators
are not inherent; we develop them through our culture and
life experiences. He was an American psychologist, noted for
his work on motivation Need Theory. He published a number
of works during the 1950s and the 1990s and developed new
scoring systems for the Thematic Apperception Test and its development commonly referred to as cultural-historical
descendants. psychology.

Henry Murray - Theory of Psychogenic Needs. He was an

American psychologist at Harvard University. He was Director
of the Harvard Psychological Clinic in the School of Arts and
Sciences after 1930. Murray developed a theory of personality
calledpersonology, based on "need" and "press".

Victor Harold Vroom - Expectancy Theory. Vroom's

expectancy theory assumes that behavior results from
conscious choices among alternatives whose purpose it is to
maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Vroom realized that
an employee's performance is based on individual’s factors
such as personality, skills, knowledge, experience and
abilities. He was a business school professor at the Yale
School of Management. He holds a PhD from University of
Michigan and an MS and BS from McGill University.

Lev Seymenovich Vysgotsky - Sociocultural Theory or

"zone of proximal development" (ZPD). His worked was
largely unknown to the West until it was published in 1962. ...
It asserts three major themes regarding social interaction, the
more knowledgeable other, and the zone of proximal
development. He was a Soviet psychologist, the founder of an
unfinished Marxist theory of human cultural and bio-social