Famous psychologists (and their most known accomplishments) that you should know for the AP Psychology Exam.
6478068595 | Mary Ainsworth | Studied attachment in infants using the "strange situation" model. Label infants "secure", "insecure" (etc.) in attachment | ![]() | 0 |
6478068596 | Solomon Asch | Conducted famous conformity experiment that required subjects to match lines. | ![]() | 1 |
6478068597 | Albert Bandura | Famous for the Bobo Doll experiments on observational learning & influence in the Socio-Cognitive Perspective | ![]() | 2 |
6478068598 | Alfred Binet | Created first intelligence test for Parisian school children | ![]() | 3 |
6478068599 | Thomas Bouchard | Studied identical twins separated at birth | ![]() | 4 |
6478068600 | Noam Chomsky | Created concept of "universal grammar" | ![]() | 5 |
6478068601 | Hermann Ebbinghaus | Memorized nonsense syllables in early study on human memory | ![]() | 6 |
6478068602 | Erik Erikson | Known for his 8-stage theory of Psychosocial Development | ![]() | 7 |
6478068603 | Sigmund Freud | Developed psychoanalysis; considered to be "father of modern psychiatry" | ![]() | 8 |
6478068604 | John Garcia | studied taste aversion in rats; led to knowledge that sickness and taste preferences can be conditioned | ![]() | 9 |
6478068606 | Harry Harlow | Studied attachment in monkeys with artificial mothers | ![]() | 10 |
6478068607 | William James | created Functionalist school of thought; early American psychology teacher/philosopher | ![]() | 11 |
6478068610 | Lawrence Kohlberg | Famous for his theory of moral development in children; made use of moral dilemmas in assessment | ![]() | 12 |
6478068611 | Elizabeth Loftus | Her research on memory construction and the misinformation effect created doubts about the accuracy of eye-witness testimony | ![]() | 13 |
6478068612 | Abraham Maslow | Humanistic psychologist known for his "Hierarchy of Needs" and the concept of "self-actualization" | ![]() | 14 |
6478068613 | Stanley Milgram | Conducted "shocking" (Ha!) experiments on obedience | ![]() | 15 |
6478068614 | Ivan Pavlov | Described process of classical conditioning after famous experiments with dogs | ![]() | 16 |
6478068615 | Jean Piaget | Known for his theory of cognitive development in children | ![]() | 17 |
6478068616 | Carl Rogers | Developed "client-centered" therapy | ![]() | 18 |
6478068617 | Stanley Schachter | Developed "Two-Factor" theory of emotion; experiments on spillover effect | ![]() | 19 |
6478068618 | B.F. Skinner | Described process of operant conditioning | ![]() | 20 |
6478068619 | Edward Thorndike | Famous for "law of effect" and research on cats in "puzzle boxes" | ![]() | 21 |
6478068620 | John Watson | Early behaviorist; famous for the "Little Albert" experiments on fear conditioning | ![]() | 22 |
6478068621 | Benjamin Lee Whorf | Famous for describing concept of "liguistic determinism" | ![]() | 23 |
6478068622 | William Wundt | Conducted first psychology experiments in first psych laboratory | ![]() | 24 |
6478068623 | Philip Zimbardo | Conducted Stanford Prison experiment | ![]() | 25 |
6478068624 | Hans Selye | (Accidentally) described General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) | ![]() | 26 |
6478068625 | Karen Horney | Neo-Freudian; offered feminist critique of Freud's theory | ![]() | 27 |
6478068626 | Martin Seligman | Conducted experiments with dogs that led to the concept of "learned helplessness" | ![]() | 28 |
6478068628 | Alfred Adler | Neo-Freudian; introduced concept of "inferiority complex" and stressed the importance of birth order | ![]() | 29 |
6478068629 | Albert Ellis | Developed "rational emotive behavior therapy" (REBT) | ![]() | 30 |
6478068630 | Aaron Beck | Developed cognitive-behavior therapy | ![]() | 31 |
6478068631 | Gordon Allport | Founder of Trait Theory | ![]() | 32 |
6478068632 | Phineas Gage | his survival of a horrible industrial accident taught us about the role of the frontal lobes (okay, he's not really a psychologist...) | ![]() | 33 |
6478068635 | Mary Whiton Calkins | first female president of the APA (1905); a student of William James; denied the PhD she earned from Harvard because of her sex (later, posthumously, it was granted to her) | ![]() | 34 |
6478068636 | Charles Darwin | his idea, that the genetic composition of a species can be altered through natural selection, has had a lasting impact on psychology through the evolutionary perspective | ![]() | 35 |
6478068637 | Dorothea Dix | American activist who successfully pressured lawmakers to construct & fund asylums for the mentally ill | ![]() | 36 |
6478068638 | G. Stanley Hall | First american to work for Wundt; Founded the American Psychological Association (now largest organization of psychologists in the USA) and became first president | ![]() | 37 |
6478068639 | Margaret Floy Washburn | First female to be awarded a PhD in psychology; 2nd female president of the APA (1921) | ![]() | 38 |
6478068640 | Paul Broca | the part of the brain responsible for coordinating muscles involved in speech was named for him, because he first identified it | ![]() | 39 |
6478068641 | Carl Wernicke | an area of the brain (in the left temporal lobe) involved in language comprehension and expression was named for him because he discovered it | ![]() | 40 |
6478068642 | Michael Gazzaniga | Conducted the "HE-ART" experiments with split brain patients | ![]() | 41 |
6478068643 | Roger Sperry | like Gazzaniga, studied split brain patients; showed that left/right hemispheres have different functions | ![]() | 42 |
6478068644 | Gustav Fechner | early German psychologist credited with founding psychophysics | ![]() | 43 |
6478068645 | David Hubel & Torsten Weisel | two Nobel prize winning neuroscientists who demonstrated the importance of "feature detector" neurons in visual perception | ![]() | 44 |
6478068646 | Ernst Weber | best known for "Weber's Law", the notion that the JND magnitude is proportional to the stimulus magnitude | ![]() | 45 |
6478068647 | Ernest Hilgard | famous for his hypnosis research & the theory that a "hidden observer" theory | ![]() | 46 |
6478068649 | Edward Tolman | researched rats' use of "cognitive maps" | ![]() | 47 |
6478068650 | Wolfgang Kohler | considered to be the founder of Gestalt Psychology | ![]() | 48 |
6478068651 | George A. Miller | made famous the phrase: "the magical number 7, plus or minus 2" when describing human memory | ![]() | 49 |
6478068652 | Alfred Kinsey | his research described human sexual behavior and was controversial (for its methodology & findings) | ![]() | 50 |
6478068653 | Diana Baumrind | her theory of parenting styles had three main types (permissive, authoratative, & authoritarian) | ![]() | 51 |
6478068654 | Lev Vygotsky | founder of "Social Development Theory" (note: not "social learning theory" OR "psychosocial" development...); emphasizes importace of More Knowledge Others (MKO) and the Zone of Proximal Development | ![]() | 52 |
6478068655 | Konrad Lorenz | won Nobel prize for research on imprinting | ![]() | 53 |
6478068656 | Carl Jung | neo-Freudian who created concept of "collective unconscious" and wrote books on dream interpretation | ![]() | 54 |
6478068657 | Paul Costa & Robert McCrae | creators of the "Big Five" model of personality traits | ![]() | 55 |
6478068658 | Francis Galton | interested in link between heredity and intelligence; founder of the eugenics movement | ![]() | 56 |
6478068659 | Howard Gardner | best known for his theory of "multiple intelligences" | ![]() | 57 |
6478068660 | Charles Spearman | creator of "g-factor", or general intelligence, concept | ![]() | 58 |
6478068661 | Robert Sternberg | creator of "successful intelligence" theory (3 types) | ![]() | 59 |
6478068662 | Lewis Terman | advocate of intelligence testing in US; developed Standford-Binet test and oversaw army's use of intelligence testing during WWI | ![]() | 60 |
6478068663 | David Weschler | Developer of WAIS and WISC intelligence tests | ![]() | 61 |
6478068664 | Mary Cover Jones | "Mother of behavior therapy"; used classical conditioning to help "Peter" overcome fear of rabbits | ![]() | 62 |
6478068665 | Joseph Wolpe | Described use of systematic desensitization to treat phobias | ![]() | 63 |
6478068666 | Leon Festinger | Described concept of cognitive dissonance | ![]() | 64 |
6478068667 | Paul Ekman | Interested in the universality of facial expressions: facial expressions carry same meaning regardless of culture, context, or language. Use of microexpressions to detect lying. | ![]() | 65 |
6478068668 | William Masters & Virginia Johnson | Used direct observation and experimentation to study sexual response cycle (4 stages) | ![]() | 66 |
6478068670 | Raymond Cattell | Intelligence: fluid & crystal intelligence; personality testing: 16 Personality Factors (16PF personality test) | ![]() | 67 |
6478068671 | Edward Bradford Titchener | Student of Wundt and founder of structuralism. Used introspection to search for the mind's structural elements. | ![]() | 68 |
6478105907 | Little Albert | Famous baby classically conditioned to fear furry creatures | 69 |