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AP Psychology - Key Contributors

Terms in this set (70)

Alfred Adler
(Personality) Neo-Freudian who stressed importance of striving for superiority and power. Believed that social factors are more important in child development than sexual factors. (birth order, inferiority and superiority complex, compensation)
Mary Ainsworth
(Development) Designed a "strange" situation experiment to study infant attachment in which children were left alone in a playroom. ("strange" situation experiment; secure, insecure, ambivalent, and avoidant attachments)
Solomon Asch
(Social) A researcher who studied conformity and how group pressure distorted judgement. In their study, subjects conformed in their perception of line length when confederates in the group purposely gave the incorrect answers.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
(History) One of the founders of modern science who was fascinated by the human mind and its failings. Suggested that humans try to find the degree of order and quality in things. Stressed the use of research findings.
Albert Bandura
(Learning) Suggested that people learn through observation and modeling--shown through their "Bobo doll experiment." In it, children mimicked adults who were hitting the Bobo doll. He suggested that observers experience vicarious reinforcement and vicarious punishment when observing others. Also proposed the social-cognitive perspective in which behavior is influenced by the interaction between people's traits and their social context. He also developed the idea of reciprocal determinism, the interacting influences of behavior, cognition, and the environment.
Diana Baumrind
(Development) Studied authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles. Children with authoritarian parents have less social skill and self-esteem. Children with authoritative parents have high self-esteem, self-reliance, and social competence. Children with permissive parents are usually more aggressive and immature.
Aaron Beck
(Treatment) Developed a cognitive therapy for depression in which patients' irrational and distorted thinking is questioned. Came up with the cognitive triad and attribution style.
Alfred Binet
(Testing) Developed the first modern intelligence test (Stanford-Binet) for the French school system measuring a child's mental age. They assumed that intelligence increases with age.
Paul Broca
(Biological) Discovered _____'s area in the left side of the brain, which is responsible for speaking.
Mary Whiton Calkins
(History) First woman to complete requirements for PhD in psychology, but denied by Harvard. Later became first female president of the APA.
Walter Cannon and Philip Bard
(Motivation + Emotion) Developed the Cannon-Bard theory of emotions in which emotions and physiological changes happen simultaneously.
Raymond Cattell
(Personality) 16 Trait Personality Inventory, early proponent of factor analysis. Believed that surface traits appear in clusters.
Noam Chomsky
(Cognition) Studied innate language development and universal grammar.
Paul Costa and Robert MaCrae
(Personality) Developed the Big Five Trait theory of conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion
Mary Cover Jones and Joseph Wolpe
(Learning and Treatment) Helped develop exposure therapies including systematic desensitization using progressive relaxation to lower phobic fears.
Charles Darwin
(History) Studied species variations and explained diversity in animals by proposing the evolutionary process of natural selection. Believed that nature selects traits that best enable an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment. Studies led to instinct theory of motivation.
Rene Descartes (1595-1650)
(History) French philosopher who agreed with Socrates and Plato that the existence of innate ideas and mind being "entire distinct from body", and that these can survive death. Believed that the immaterial mind and physical body communicate. Coined the phrase "I think, therefore, I am."
Dorothea Dix
(Treatment) Advocated for more humane treatment of the mentally ill and the construction of mental hospitals
Hermann Ebbinghaus
(Cognition) Developed the forgetting (retention) curve b learning nonsense syllables
Albert Ellis
(Treatment) Creator of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, a confrontational cognitive therapy that challenges people's self-defeating attitudes and assumptions that cause emotional problems
Erik Erikson
(Development and Personality) Developed eight stages of psychosocial development in which each stage centers around a task or conflict.
Gustav Fechner
(Sensation+Perception) Developed field of psychophysics. Studied concept of absolute threshold.
Leon Festinger
(Social) Developed cognitive dissonance theory where we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent with each other.
Margaret Floyd Washburn
(History) First femaple to received a PhD in psychology, second female president of the APA.
James Flynn
(Cognition) Discovered the _____ effect, which noted intelligence scores increased over decades, therefore IQ tests need to be re-standardized periodically.
Sigmund Freud (theory 1)
(Personality) Creator of the psychoanalytic school. Divided mind into conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. Emphasized the way our unconscious thought processes and our emotional responses to childhood experiences affect our behavior. Divided personality into the id, ego, and superego. Developed how the ego protects itself through the use of defense mechanisms.
Sigmund Freud (theory 2)
(Development) Proposed 5 psychosexual stages (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital). Fixation on these can cause issues later in life.
Sigmund Freud (therapy)
(Treatment) Developed psychoanalysis. Assumed many psychological problems are the result of repressed impulses and conflicts in childhood. Goal of treatment is to release energy previously devoted to id-ego-superego conflicts. Psychoanalysis involved free association, resistance, and transference. They suggested that anxiety is "free-floating" and distinguished manifest content and latent content of dreams.
Phineas Gage
(Biology) Railroad worker who in 1848 had a tapping iron shot though their brain. Survived but was left with severe cognitive and emotional difficulties.
Francis Galton (1822-1911)
(Cognition) Believed intelligence was purely hereditary. Developed a rudimentary intelligence test.
John Garcia and Robert Koelling
(Learning) Studied conditioned taste aversion in rats. Also suggested how people are biologically prepared to learning some associations over others.
Howard Gardner
(Cognition) Proposed eight distinct intelligences: naturalistic, linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, body-kinesthetic, and spatial.
Carol Gilligan
(Development) Criticized Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development as being too male-centric
G. Stanley Hall
(History) First president of APA, established first US psychology lab at John Hopkins University
Harry Harlow and Margaret Harlow
(Development) Studied attachment by observing how infant monkeys responded to two artificial mothers (cloth and wire). Found infant mothers preferred cloth mother over wire mother. Monkeys raised in complete isolation were later unable to interact with others.
Ernest Hilgard
(Consciousness) Founder of dissociative theory, hypnosis involves both social influence and a dual processing state where consciousness is split allowing thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously called dissociation.
David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel
(Sensation + Perception) Did work with feature detectors
William James
Functionalist philosopher-psychologist who wrote one of the first introductory psychology tests, Principles of Psychology.
William James and Carl Lange
(Motivation+Emotion) Developed the ____-____ theory of emotions, suggesting emotions are the result of physiological changes.
Carl Jung
(Personality) Neo-Freudian who said the unconscious mind was divided into the collective and personal unconsciousnesses.
Lawrence Kohlberg
(Development) Developed three levels of moral thinking: preconventional, conventional, postconventional
Wolfgang Kohler
(Sensation + Perception)Co-founder of Gestalt psychology who studied insight in a chimp who used a stick to reach food.
Konrad Lorenz
(Development) Studied imprinting in ducklings, instinctive behavior in animals, critical periods, and motivation-instinct theory.
John Locke (1632-1704)
(History) British philosopher who suggested the mind is a tabula rasa on which experience writes. Helped form modern empiricism.
Elizabeth Loftus
(Cognition) Studied how eyewitness memories can be influenced by questioning. Researched how information can be incorporated into one's memory via the misinformation effect.
Abraham Maslow
(Motivation+Emotion and Abnormal Behavior) Humanist who believed our overall need is to fulfill our potential. Believed we should only study healthy and people. Developed hierarchy of needs theory and drew attention to ways the current environmental influences can affect our growth potential. Stressed the importance of having our needs for love and acceptance satisfied.
Stanley Milgram
(Social) Studied obedience where subjects, following the orders of an experimenter, "shocked" a confederate.
George Miller
(Cognition) Proposed short-term memory is limited to around seven bits of memory.
Ivan Pavlov
(Learning) Discovered classical conditioning in his studies of the digestion in dogs.
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
(Development) Used cased studies to research children's thinking and cognitive development, leading the the four stages of cognitive development (Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational). Developed concepts of schemas, assimilation, and accommodation.
Philippe Pinel (1745-1826)
(Abnormal Behavior and Treatment) Suggested abnormal behavior was not due to demon possession and advocated a moral human treatment of patients.
Robert Rescorla and Allan Wagner
(Learning) Developed the contingency model. By having shocks proceed by tones and lights, discovered that animals can learn the predictability of an event.
Carl Rogers (1902-1987)
(Personality) Humanist who believed people are basically good and endowed with self-actualizing tendencies. Developed client-centered perspective and therapy which focused on genuineness, acceptance, and empathy.
Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer
(Motivation + Emotion) Developed the two-factor theory of emotions in which emotions are the result of physiological changes and a cognitive appraisal. Injected subjects with epinephrine and placed them in rooms with a euphoric or irritated confederate.
Hans Selye
(Motivation + Emotion) Developed the general adaptation syndrome in reaction to stress including the alarm, resistance, and exhaustion phase. Concluded prolong stress can damage individuals.
B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)
(Learning) Modern behaviorist who studied operant conditioning through an operant chamber. Developed 4 schedules of reinforcement and believed external influences shape behavior NOT internal thoughts of feelings.
Charles Spearman
(Cognition) Proposed a general intelligence (g). Helped develop factor analysis.
Robert Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga
(Biological) pioneered and studied split-brain research helping to understand the functioning of both hemispheres
Robert Sternberg
(Social) proposed a triarchic theory of three intelligences - analytical (academic problem solving) intelligence, creative intelligence, and practical intelligence. Also developed five (expertise, imaginative thinking skills, venturesome personality, intrinsic motivation and a creative environment) components of creativity.
Lewis Terman (1877-1956)
(Cognition) Revised Binet's test (Stanford-Binet intelligence test) for use in the United States. Conducted a longitudinal study of high intelligence children.
Edward L. Thorndike (1874-1949)
(Learning) Behaviorist who studied how cats got out of a "puzzle box", developed law of effect.
Edward Chase Tolman and C. H. Honzik
• studied rats exploring mazes without reinforcements (latent learning), resulting in the rats developing cognitive maps of the maze
Lev Vygotsky
(Development) stressed how children develop through interactions with the social environment; zone of proximal development, a zone between what a child can and can't do
John B. Watson
(Learning) Creator ofbehaviorism, dismissed introspection. suggested psychology study how people respond to stimuli (behavior) rather than inner
thoughts, feelings, and motives. With associate (Rosalie Rayner), conditioned "Baby Albert" to fear a white rat
Ernst Weber
(Sensation + Perception) Developed ____'s law regarding the constant percentage of the difference threshold.
David Wechsler
(Cognition) Developed the _____ adult intelligence scale and the version for children. It contains verbal and performance subtests.
Carl Wernicke
Discovered ____'s area, responsible for speech comprehension.
Wilhem Wundt
(History) Creator of psychology, established the first psychology lab at the UNiversity of Leipzig, Germany. Measured the time lag between people's hearing a ball hit a platform and their pressing of a telegraph key. Focused on inner sensations, images, and feelings (introspection)
Yerkes and Dodson
(Motivation+Emotion) ________-_____ law, the ideal level arousal depends on the complexity of a task. More complex requires low levels of arousal and simple tasks require high arousal levels.
Philip Zimbardo
(Social) Conducted studies in roleplaying where college studnets played the roles of prison guards and prisoners (Stanford Prison Experiment)
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