THE 51 MOST FAMOUS AND IMPORTANT PSYCHOLOGISTS - PSYCHOLOGY - 2025

There are very important famous psychologists who have stood out above the rest. They are the founders of the great schools (psychoanalysis, humanism, behaviorism, cognitive psychology) and have made great contributions to science and human knowledge.

They are classics that any student or lover of psychology will have read several times, because they are the most recognized in the field of human behavior.

I have made a list that is based on the popularity of each psychologist in the general culture, but also on the importance of their contributions to psychology. The order may vary, each of them have been important.

I have mentioned very briefly the contributions of each of them, although if you want to know them better, I have left a link to Wikipedia.

I would like to know which one has influenced you the most, or the one that you have read the most. Have I missed any? You can comment at the end of the article. I'm interested!

List with the 51 most famous and important psychologists

-Iván Pavlov (1849-1936)

He is known above all for formulating the law of conditional reflex, which due to an error in the translation of his work into the English language was called conditioned reflex, which he developed between 1890 and 1900.

-Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

He was an Austrian neurologist of Jewish origin, the father of psychoanalysis and one of the greatest intellectual figures of the 20th century.

-Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990)

He conducted pioneering work in experimental psychology and championed behaviorism, which views behavior as a function of reinforcing environmental stories.

-William James (1842-1910)

He was an American philosopher with a long and brilliant career at Harvard University, where he was a professor of psychology, and was the founder of functional psychology.

-Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

Jean piaget

Creator of genetic epistemology, famous for his contributions to the study of childhood with cognitive development and for his constructivist theory of the development of intelligence.

-Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

Famous for having developed the first experimental psychology laboratory (in Leipzig)

-Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

Together with Abraham Maslow he would go on to found the humanistic approach in psychology.

-Albert Bandura (1925-Act.)

Recognized for his work on the theory of social learning and its evolution to Sociocognitivism, as well as for having postulated the category of self-efficacy.

-Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

Known as one of the founders and main exponents of humanistic psychology, he stands out for introducing the pyramid of needs.

-Erich Fromm (1900-1980)

He was one of the main renovators of psychoanalytic theory and practice in the mid-20th century.

-Kurt Lewin (1890-1947)

He became interested in research on group psychology and interpersonal relationships.

-Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

Its basic concepts are those of character, inferiority complex and conflict between the real situation of the individual and his aspirations.

-Albert Ellis (1913-2007)

He was an American cognitive psychotherapist who, from 1955 on, developed rational emotional behavioral therapy (RETT).

-John Watson (1878-1958)

He was one of the most important American psychologists of the 20th century, known for having founded the School of Behavioral Psychology.

-Gordon Allport (1897-1967)

He became the character traits theorist, focused on describing how traits differ in each person.

-Solomon Asch (1907-1996)

He became famous in the 1950s for his experiments on conformity, where it was shown that social pressure on people can willfully mislead them.

-Erik Erikson (1902-1994)

He was an American psychoanalyst of German origin, noted for his contributions in developmental psychology.

-Viktor Frankl (1905-1997)

He was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, founder of Logotherapy. He survived from 1942 to 1945 in various Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Dachau.

-Paul Ekman (1934-Act.)

Psychologist Paul Ekman

Pioneer in the study of emotions and their facial expression. He has been considered one of the hundred most outstanding psychologists of the 20th century.

-Raymond Cattell (1905-1998)

He theorized about intelligence and personality, proposing the existence of a fluid intelligence and a crystallized intelligence.

-Hans Eysenck (1916-1997)

Thanks to his research we can affirm that current cognitive behavioral therapies have a demonstrable empirical basis.

-Aaron Beck (1921-Act.)

He developed the psychotherapy system called Cognitive Therapy (also known as "Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy" or "CBT").

-Alfred Binet (1857-1911)

He is known for his essential contribution to psychometry and differential psychology as a designer of the predictive school performance test.

-Daniel Kahneman

He was awarded the "Nobel Prize" in economics for having integrated aspects of psychological research into economic science, especially with regard to human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty.

-Francis Galton (1822-1911)

Painting by Sir Francis Galton. Precursor of eugenics. Taken and edited from: National Portrait Gallery.

He contributed to different areas of science such as psychology, biology, eugenics, technology, geography, statistics or meteorology. He applied his principles to many fields, mainly to the study of the human being and individual differences.

-Jerome Bruner (1915-Act.)

His studies in the field of evolutionary psychology and social psychology were focused on generating changes in teaching that would make it possible to overcome the reductionist, mechanistic models of rote learning centered on the figure of the teacher, and that impeded the development of students' intellectual potentialities..

-Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

Edward Thorndike. By: Popular Science Monthly Volume 80

His main contributions were learning by trial / error and the law of effect. His studies on animal behavior allowed him to develop the theory of connectionism.

-Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)

One of the most prominent theorists of developmental psychology, founder of cultural-historical psychology and a clear forerunner of Soviet neuropsychology, of which the Russian physician Alexander Luria would be the greatest exponent.

-Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961)

Key figure in the initial stage of psychoanalysis; later, founder of the school of analytical psychology, also called complex psychology and deep psychology.

-Virginia Satir (1916-1988)

She was a notable American author and social worker, psychotherapist, known especially for her approach to family therapy.

-Milton H. Erickson (1901-1980)

He was an American doctor and hypnotherapist, innovator and pioneer in changing the techniques of hypnotism applied to psychotherapy.

-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934-Act.)

From left to right: William Damon, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Howard Gardner

He has been noted for his work on happiness, creativity, subjective well-being, and fun, but is most famous for his creation of the idea of ​​flow and long-term work on that topic.

-Martin Selingman (1942-Act.)

He is best known for his experiments on learned helplessness and its relationship to depression. In recent years she is also known for her work and influence in the field of positive psychology.

-Harry Harlow (1905-1981)

Known for his experiments with rhesus monkeys on maternal separation, dependency needs, and social isolation.

-Fritz Perls (1893-1970)

He was the creator, along with his wife, Laura Posner, of Gestalt Therapy.

-Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)

He employed repetition as a measure of memory and, using himself as an experimental subject and poetry and consonant-vowel-consonant meaningless syllables as an instrument, he devoted himself to its study.

-Hermann Rorschach (1844-1922)

Known above all for the development of the test that bears his name, the Rorschach Test.

-Anna Freud (1895-1982)

Daughter of Sigmund Freud, she focused her research on child psychology.

-Steven Pinker (1954-Act.)

He is known for his powerful and energetic advocacy of evolutionary psychology and computational theory of mind.

-Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956)

Although he studied entomology in college, his most important contribution to humanity - for which he gained renown - was his study of the sexual behavior of men and women.

-Hugo Münsterberg (1863-1916)

A pioneer of applied psychology, he established the foundations of industrial psychology.

-Robert Rosenthal (1933-Act.)

Known for his research on self-fulfilling prophecy and the effect on students of teacher expectations.

-Robert Cialdini (1945-Act.)

He is known internationally for being one of the leading scholars of the social psychology of persuasion.

-Leon Festinger (1919-1989)

He presented his theory of cognitive dissonance, which revolutionized the field of social psychology, and which has had multiple applications in areas such as motivation, group dynamics, the study of attitude change and decision-making.

-Jacques Lacan (1901-1981)

Known for the theoretical contributions he made to psychoanalysis based on the analytical experience and the reading of Freud, incorporating elements of structuralism, structural linguistics, mathematics and philosophy.

-John Dewey (1859-1952)

He was "the most important American philosopher of the first half of the 20th century," 1 and was, along with Charles Sanders Peirce and William James, one of the founders of the philosophy of pragmatism.

-Rollo May (1909-1994)

Pioneer of existential psychology and psychotherapy in America. He showed a keen understanding of the tragic dimensions of human existence.

-Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005)

He proposed the ecological theory on the development and change of behavior in the individual through his theory of environmental systems that influence the subject and its change in development.

-Stanley Milgram (1933-1984)

He conducted the small world experiments (the source of the concept of the six degrees of separation) and the Milgram Experiment on obedience to authority.

-Robert Hare (1934-Act.)

He developed the PCL (Psychopathy CheckList or checklist in psychopathies) and the PCL-R (Psychopathy CheckList Revised or revised checklist in psychopathies), used to diagnose cases of psychopathy and useful in the prediction of possible violent behaviors.

-Philip Zimbardo (1933-Act.)

His work in social psychology, especially the Stanford jail experiment, is famous both in academia and outside of it.

-Timothy Leary (1920-1996)

He was a famous proponent of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of using LSD.

-Daniel Goleman (1946-Act.)

He became world famous after the publication of his book Emotional Intelligence (in Spanish, emotional intelligence) in 1995.

-Gustav Fechner (1801-1887)

Known for formulating, in 1860, an equation to quantify the relationship between a physical stimulus and the associated sensation. He had a very animistic concept of the world, thinking that each matter was endowed with a spirit.

-Robert Sternberg (1949-Act.)

Among his main investigations are those related to intelligence, creativity, love, hate, and wisdom. He has devoted a large part of his life to the study of Intelligence, he aims to achieve a broader notion that covers more areas of this concept. Here you can read an interview we did with him.

And which one has influenced you the most? Which do you think is the most influential? Can you tell me any more? I am interested in your opinion!