The 10 most important and famous psychologists in history

Who are the most important psychologists in history? Find out in our ranking.

Several decades of research in psychology and the number of investigations about the way we think, feel and behave has grown in number and complexity. Waves of experiments, publications and papers papers have been sedimenting to create a mass of theories and knowledge about psychology and neuroscience that is daunting to approach from scratch, but that does not mean that during these years there have been no relevant researchers. relevant researchers researchers of special importance.

This small Top 10 with some of the most famous psychologists can serve to get an idea of the moments through which psychology has about the moments through which research in psychology has been going through.

A totally questionable list with the most important and famous psychologists.

Psychologists are listed here in order more or less according to the period to which they belong, not because of the magnitude of their works and discoveries. It is a list of the most important most important and influential psychologists obviously, there will always be those who think that we have forgotten someone. Although it is possible that not all of them are here, we can affirm that they are all here.

Wilhelm Wundt

Wundt (August 16, 1832 - August 31, 1920) is considered by many to be the first psychologist in history. the first psychologist in history. This is debatable, since psychology has its roots in philosophy and, depending on how we understand what the study of mental processes and human behavior should be, we can go back to the time of the pre-Socratic philosophers in search of its origins.

However, it is less arguable that Wilhelm Wundt deserves to be on any podium of the most famous and relevant psychologists because of his role as a pioneer in the scientific psychology. It was he who opened, in Leipzig in 1879, the first laboratory focused exclusively on experimental psychology, a symptom that psychology was consolidating as an independent discipline. To Wundt we owe, at the very least, the recognition of being the driving force behind psychology as a systematic study of behavior and mental processes.

• Wundt's biography, in this link

William James

Something similar to what Wundt did in Europe was also achieved by William James (January 11, 1842, in New York, USA - August 26, 1910, in New Hampshire, USA) in America, by emphasizing the need to study psychology by applying methods typical of the natural sciences..

In his book The Principles of Psychologythe American William James adopted some of the ideas that the English naturalist Charles Darwin had made public a few years earlier with The Descent of Man about the instincts that were supposedly expressed in human behavior.

For all these reasons, James is one of the most influential psychologists in the early stages of science.

• Read his biography through this link.

Sigmund Freud

Possibly, the personality who has shaped in a clearer way the stereotypes of the classic psychologist. As the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (Pribor, May 6, 1856-London, September 23, 1939), is not part of the history of scientific psychology, but he is a reference in psychology in the world of psychology. is a reference in psychology in the broadest sense of the term..

Freud was one of the pioneers in theorizing about the unconscious aspects of our behavior and the role played in them by culture and social relationships with others.

Sigmund Freud is, because of his contributions and his groundbreaking theories, the most cited and famous psychologist in history. His personal biography, moreover, is full of curiosities and controversies. It is likely that if you ask an acquaintance with no connection to the academic world, he or she will not be able to tell you anything about Vygotsky, James, Bandura.... But But everyone has heard about Freud.

4. Lev Vygotsky

The Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky (November 17, 1896, Orsha, Russian Empire, present-day Belarus - June 11, 1934, Moscow, Soviet Union), is one of the great referents of the evolutionary psychology.

Vygotsky was one of the first researchers to emphasize the importance of cultural context. the importance of cultural context and human relationships in the cognitive development of human beings from early childhood.

And all this at a time when it was customary to consider that the mind emerged spontaneously from the individual, regardless of the conditions of life in which he was immersed. Vygotsky broke with the geneticist and determinist tradition.

• You can read more about Vygotsky here.

5. Jean Piaget

Another of the most famous psychologists who has contributed the most to the study of the science of behavior and mental processes is the Swiss Jean Piaget (Neuchâtel, August 9, 1896 - Geneva, September 16, 1980). Together with Vygotsky, he is one of the great figures of developmental psychology..

His constructivist approach to pedagogy is very topical even today, decades after his death. Most educational psychologists and pedagogues refer to the theories and teachings of the Helvetic psychologist.

• Here you have more information about his Theory of Learning.

6. B. F. Skinner

One of the great referents, together with John B. Watson, of the behaviorist psychology.

Bhurrus Frederic Skinner (Susquehanna, March 20, 1904 - Cambridge, August 18, 1990) took the findings of the line of research initiated by the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov and adapted them to experimental psychology.

His approach to behavioral research involved isolating behavioral variables in an experimental setting. isolating behavioral variables in a laboratory to study the conditioning processes that he believed shaped the human repertoire of actions, beyond the influence of cultural differences, historical processes and subjective states of consciousness.

• You can find out more about his life and his theories here.

7. Abraham Maslow

Abraham Harold Maslow (Brooklyn, New York, April 1, 1908 - June 8, 1970 Palo Alto, California) is one of the most famous psychologists in the history of Humanistic Psychology.

In addition, his hierarchy of human needs (today presented graphically in the form of a Pyramid of Needs), in which the satisfaction of the most essential or subordinate needs allows access to the higher links of more complex needs.

In addition to his influence in the field of human motivation and desire, his theories on self-actualization and self-actualization can be considered foundational pieces of Positive Psychology.

8. Albert Bandura

Albert Bandura (Mundare, Canada, December 4th, 1925) is the creator of the Self-Efficacy Theory and one of the researchers who contributed the most to the development of the Social Learning Theory Socialas well as in the field of Personality Psychology.

This author is especially recognized for his contributions in relation to learning styles and the relationship between social social relationships and human human cognition. In addition, in a 2002 survey, thousands of psychology professionals and students ranked Bandura as the fourth most influential psychologist in history, behind Skinner, Piaget and Freud. Bandura has the honor of being the most cited living psychologist.

You can read more about this psychologist in the two articles dedicated to the Ukrainian-Canadian psychologist Albert Bandura:

• "Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory".
• "Albert Bandura's Self-Efficacy: do you believe in yourself".

9. Daniel Kahneman

This Israeli psychologist is best known for his contributions in the field of behavioral economics and decision making. Together with other researchers, Daniel Kahneman (Tel Aviv, Israel. March 5, 1934) has contributed to questioning the assumption that human beings behave rationally in those contexts in which they should be governed by a cost-benefit logic, such as the purchase of products or voting.

Moreover, he has the privilege of being one of the very few psychologists who have won a Nobel Prize.

• Incidentally, a few months ago we recommended one of his books in this article

10. Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker (Montreal, September 18, 1954) is well known for his theories about language as a mechanism of adaptation to the environment carved by evolution and for being one of the most famous psychologists among those who ascribe to the evolutionary psychology.

A brilliant writer, Pinker is a professor at the prestigious Harvard University, and is an eminent figure in the fields of perception and language development in childhood. In this regard, the Canadian defends the controversial idea that human language is a Biological adaptation shaped by natural selection.

• You can read more about his ideas in The Clean Slate or The Language Instinct.