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Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines

Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.

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List of the most influential people in Psychology,

#5051

Dana R. Carney

Dana R. Carney is an American psychologist. She is associate professor of business at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a Barbara and Gerson Bakar Faculty Fellow, an affiliate of the Department of Psychology and the director of the Institute of Personality and Social Research at the University of California, Berkeley.

#5052

Louis Leon Thurstone

1887 - 1955 (68 years)

Louis Leon Thurstone was an American pioneer in the fields of psychometrics and psychophysics. He conceived the approach to measurement known as the law of comparative judgment, and is well known for his contributions to factor analysis. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Thurstone as the 88th most cited psychologist of the 20th century, tied with John Garcia, James J. Gibson, David Rumelhart, Margaret Floy Washburn, and Robert S. Woodworth.

#5053

Angus Campbell

1910 - 1980 (70 years)

Albert Angus Campbell was an American social psychologist best known for his research into electoral systems and for co-writing The American Voter with Philip Converse, Warren Miller, and Donald E. Stokes. Campbell published his work under the name Angus Campbell. He was a professor at the University of Michigan. He died in Ann Arbor, Michigan on December 15, 1980.

#5054

Clyde Coombs

1912 - 1988 (76 years)

Clyde Hamilton Coombs was an American psychologist specializing in the field of mathematical psychology. He devised a voting system, that was hence named Coombs' method. Coombs founded the Mathematical Psychology program at the University of Michigan. His students included Amos Tversky, Robyn Dawes, and Baruch Fischhoff, all important researchers in Decision Sciences. The classic text "An Introduction to Mathematical Psychology," by Coombs, Dawes, and Tversky was a must for Michigan graduate students in Mathematical and Experimental Psychology.

#5055

Dalbir Bindra

1922 - 1980 (58 years)

Dalbir Bindra FRSC was a Canadian neuropsychologist and a professor in the psychology department at McGill University . He is known for his contributions to the neurobiological study of motivation and behaviour and his two books on these topics; Motivation: A Systematic Reinterpretation , and A Theory of Intelligent Behaviour . He also served as chair of the McGill University Psychology Department .

#5056

Calvin Perry Stone

1892 - 1954 (62 years)

Calvin Perry Stone was an American psychologist, known for his work in comparative and physiological psychology. He was also a past president of the American Psychological Association and a member of the National Academy of Sciences .

#5057

Gertrude Rand

1886 - 1970 (84 years)

Marie Gertrude Rand Ferree was an American research scientist who is known for her extensive body of work about color perception. Her work included "mapping the retina for its perceptional abilities", "developing new instruments and lamps for ophthalmologists", and "detection and measurement of color blindness". Rand, with LeGrand H. Hardy and M. Catherine Rittler, developed the HRR pseudoisochromatic color test.

#5058

T. C. Schneirla

T. C. Schneirla

1902 - 1968 (66 years)

Theodore Christian Schneirla was an American animal psychologist who performed some of the first studies on the behavior patterns of army ants. Schneirla was educated at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor , and joined the staff of New York University in 1928. He made the first of eight trips to the Barro Colorado Island, Panama Canal Zone, to study the behavior of army ants in 1932. His "Studies on Army Ants in Panama," published the next year, provided new insight into their behavior. He discovered that these ants operate on a 36-day cycle consisting of a 16-day nomadic pattern followed by a 20-day stationary phase.

#5059

Paul Dressel

1910 - 1989 (79 years)

Paul Dressel was an American educational psychologist. He was the founding director of the Counseling Center at Michigan State University, and the author of several books. Early life Dressel was born on November 29, 1910. He graduated from Wittenberg University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1931. He earned a master's degree from Michigan State University in 1934, and a PhD from the University of Michigan in 1939.

#5060

George Gallup

1901 - 1984 (83 years)

George Horace Gallup was an American pioneer of survey sampling techniques and inventor of the Gallup poll, a successful statistical method of survey sampling for measuring public opinion. Life and career Gallup was born in Jefferson, Iowa, the son of Nettie Quella and George Henry Gallup, a dairy farmer. As a teen, George Jr., known then as "Ted", would deliver milk and used his salary to start a newspaper at the high school, where he also played football. His higher education took place at the University of Iowa, where he was a football player, a member of the Iowa Beta chapter of the Si...

#5061

Myrtle Byram McGraw

1899 - 1988 (89 years)

Myrtle Byram McGraw was an American psychologist, neurobiologist, and child development researcher. Education Myrtle was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the fifth of seven children of the farmer Riley McGraw and his seamstress wife Mary Byram. She grew up in an area that was still recovering from the aftermath of the American Civil War. After completing a sixth grade level of education, she took a course in a local business school to learn shorthand and typing. Afterward, she was hired by a law office, where she worked for the next two years at a salary of $3 per hour. While there, the lawyer for whom she worked had the foresight to encourage her to continue her education.

#5062

Morris Viteles

1898 - 1996 (98 years)

Morris Simon Viteles was an influential researcher and writer in the field of industrial and organizational psychology. His book Industrial Psychology, published in 1932, was the first comprehensive modern textbook in the field. His writings were so influential that he was often regarded as the founder of the field, although he disavowed that claim.

#5063

Barbara Stoddard Burks

1902 - 1943 (41 years)

Barbara Stoddard Burks was an American psychologist known for her research on the nature-nurture debate as it pertained to intelligence and other human traits. She has been credited with "...pioneer[ing] the statistical techniques which continue to ground the trenchant nature/nurture debates about intelligence in American psychology."

#5064

Harold Clyde Bingham

1888 - 1964 (76 years)

Harold Clyde Bingham was an American psychologist and primatologist. He spent his early career as a psychology professor, interrupting this to join the United States Army during World War I. He joined the faculty of Yale University in 1925 and studied under the supervision of Robert Yerkes. Yerkes, a psychology professor, had an interest in primates, and Bingham also entered this field. He led a 1929-30 expedition to the Belgian Congo to study gorillas in the wild. Though hampered by the size of the expedition, Bingham managed to get close to several troops of the animals and record details of their behavior.

#5065

John Wallace Baird

1869 - 1919 (50 years)

John Wallace Baird was a Canadian psychologist. He was the 27th president of the American Psychological Association . He was the first Canadian, and only the second non-American, to hold the office. He was also a founding editor of the Journal of Applied Psychology, and served in subordinate editorial capacities for Psychological Review, American Journal of Psychology, and the Journal of Educational Psychology. At his death in 1919, he was the designate to succeed Granville Stanley Hall as president of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

#5066

Katharine Banham

1897 - 1995 (98 years)

Katharine May Banham was an English psychologist who specialized in developmental psychology. She was the first woman to be awarded a Ph.D. from the Université de Montréal. Early life and education Katharine May Banham received a B.S. from the University of Manchester in 1919 and a M.S. from Cambridge University in 1921. In 1923, she earned a M.A. from the University of Toronto and graduated cum laude from the Université de Montréal in 1934, being the first woman to be awarded a Ph.D. from that university.

#5067

Harvey A. Carr

1873 - 1954 (81 years)

Harvey A. Carr , a founding father of functionalist psychology, was renowned for a methodical and thorough approach to his science. His work was largely devoted to studies of animal cognition and perception. Carr collaborated with John B. Watson on his most well-known project: the famous Kerplunk experiment. Carr held his post as chairman of the Psychology department at the University of Chicago from 1926 to 1938. He also served as the president of the American Psychological Association in 1926.

#5068

Ruth Wendell Washburn

1890 - 1975 (85 years)

Ruth Wendell Washburn was an American educational psychologist. She received a B.A. from Vassar in 1913, an M.A. from Radcliffe in 1922, and a Ph.D. degree from Yale University in 1929. The Ruth Washburn Cooperative Nursery School in Colorado Springs, Colorado is named in her honor.

#5069

Åse Gruda Skard

Åse Gruda Skard

1905 - 1985 (80 years)

Åse Gruda Skard was a Norwegian university professor, child psychologist and author. She was a noted pioneer in the field of childhood development and psychology. Biography She was born at Kristiania , Norway. She was the daughter of Halvdan Koht and Karen Elisabeth Grude . Her father was a noted historian and professor and the University of Oslo. Her mother was an educator, author and feminist pioneer. Her brother Paul Koht was a diplomat and ambassador.

#5070

Helga Eng

1875 - 1966 (91 years)

Helga Kristine Eng was a Norwegian psychologist and educationalist. She was the third woman to receive a doctor's degree in Norway, and the first to do so in psychology. Early life and education She was born in Rakkestad as a daughter of teacher and smallholder Hans Andersen Kirkeng and Johanne Marie Sæves . She had seven siblings. She graduated from Asker Seminary in 1895, and started a career as a primary school teacher. She started in Lier, continued in Moss from 1897 to 1900 when she was hired at Lakkegata School at Tøyen, Oslo.

#5071

Clare W. Graves

1914 - 1986 (72 years)

Clare W. Graves was a professor of psychology and originator of the emergent cyclical theory of adult human development, aspects of which were later popularised as Spiral Dynamics. He was born in New Richmond, Indiana.

#5072

James P. Lichtenberger

1870 - 1953 (83 years)

James Pendleton Lichtenberger was an American sociologist and academic. Lichtenberger served as the twelfth president of the American Sociological Association. Early life and education Lichtenberger was born on 10 June 1870 in Decatur, Illinois to Conrad H. and Anna Elizabeth Lichtenberger, née Nesbitt. Lichtenberger attended Eureka College and received a bachelor's degree in 1893. He soon after enrolled in the ministry of the Church of the Disciples of Christ and was a pastor in the church in Canton, Illinois from 1896 to 1899, after which we transferred to a congregation in Buffalo, New York.

#5073

Louisa E. Rhine

Louisa E. Rhine

1891 - 1983 (92 years)

Louisa Ella Rhine was an American doctor of botany and is known for her work in parapsychology. At the time of her death, she was recognized as the foremost researcher of spontaneous psychic experiences, and has been referred to as the "first lady of parapsychology."

#5074

Richard Müller-Freienfels

1882 - 1949 (67 years)

Richard Müller-Freienfels was a German philosopher, psychologist and social critic. He was "one of the most important mediators of empirical psychology" to poetics. Life Müller-Freienfels was born in Bad Ems on 7 August 1882. He was a lecturer and writer at the Berlin Trade School . He died on 12 December 1949 in Weilburg.

#5075

Curt W. Bondy

1894 - 1972 (78 years)

Curt Werner Bondy was a German psychologist and social educator. Literary works Pädagogische Problem im Jugendstrafvollzug, 1925Problems of Internment Camps, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1943.Bindungslose Jugend, 1952

#5076

Bernice Cronkhite

1893 - 1983 (90 years)

Bernice Brown Cronkhite was an educator and former dean of Radcliffe College, working there for thirty-six years. She was the first woman at Radcliffe College to earn a doctorate in political science.

#5077

John Edgar Coover

John Edgar Coover

1872 - 1938 (66 years)

John Edgar Coover , also known as J. E. Coover was an American psychologist and parapsychologist known for his experiments into extrasensory perception. Career Coover carried out a psychical research programme at Stanford University . He conducted approximately 10, 000 experiments with 100 subjects to test for extrasensory perception . He concluded after four years of research that "statistical treatments of the data fail to reveal any cause beyond chance". He also conducted 1,000 experiments with psychics and it was revealed that they had no advantage of any supposed psychic ability over norm...

#5078

Donald G. Paterson

1892 - 1961 (69 years)

Donald Gildersleeve Paterson was an American psychologist known for pioneering applied psychology, in particular vocational counseling, industrial/organizational psychology, and differential psychology in the United States. He was a professor of psychology at the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota from 1921 to 1960.

#5079

Samuel Soal

1889 - 1975 (86 years)

Samuel George Soal was a British mathematician and parapsychologist. He was charged with fraudulent production of data in his work in parapsychology. Biography Soal graduated with first class honours in mathematics from Queen Mary College in 1910. After service in World War I, in which he suffered shelling at the Battle of the Somme, he lectured in mathematics at Oxford in the Army School of Education, before returning as a lecturer to Queen Mary College, University of London. In 1944, he was awarded the D.Sc. from Queen Mary College, where he continued to lecture in mathematics until his retirement in 1954.

#5080

Minnie Steckel

1890 - 1952 (62 years)

Minnie Steckel was an American teacher, psychologist, clubwoman, and an activist involved in the women's poll tax repeal movement. Steckel began her career as a school teacher and worked her way up to school principal, superintendent and school psychologist, earning her bachelor's, master's and PhD degrees. From 1932 until her death in 1952, she was the dean of women and counselor at Alabama College. She served as president of the local Montevallo chapter of the American Association of University Women from 1937 to 1939, as president of the state chapter of the Business and Professional Wome...

#5081

Clare Winnicott

1906 - 1984 (78 years)

Clare Winnicott OBE was an English social worker, civil servant, psychoanalyst and teacher. She played a pivotal role in the passing of The Children's Act of 1948. Alongside her husband, D. W. Winnicott, Clare would go on to become a prolific writer and prominent social worker and children's advocate in 20th century England.

#5082

Edwin Ray Guthrie

Edwin Ray Guthrie

1886 - 1959 (73 years)

Edwin Ray Guthrie was a behavioral psychologist who began his career as a mathematics teacher and philosopher. But, he became a psychologist at the age of 33. He spent most of his career at the University of Washington, where he became full professor and then emeritus professor in psychology.

#5083

Roswell G. Ham

1891 - 1983 (92 years)

Roswell Gray Ham was an American educator who served as the 11th President of Mount Holyoke College from 1937 to 1957. He was born in LeMoore, California and received his B.A. from University of California, Berkeley and his Ph.D. from Yale University. He taught at Yale for ten years before becoming the first male president of Mount Holyoke.

#5084

Jessie P. Guzman

1898 - 1996 (98 years)

Jessie Parkhurst Guzman was a writer, archivist, historian, educator, and college administrator, primarily at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. In her work at the Tuskegee Institute, particularly in the Department of Research and Records, she documented the lives of African Americans and maintained the Institute's lynching records.

#5085

A. G. Mearns

1903 - 1968 (65 years)

Alexander Gow Mearns FRSE MBE was a Scottish physician and public health expert. He was one of the first people in forensic science to use insect activity to determine the time of death. In authorship he is referred to as A. G. Mearns.

#5086

H. J. Pearce

1871 - 1943 (72 years)

H. J. Pearce was an American psychologist. He was the founder of Brenau College, and served as its president from 1900 to 1943. Early life Haywood Jefferson Pearce was born in 1871. He received a PhD from a university in Germany in 1907.

#5087

Agnes L. Rogers

Agnes L. Rogers

1884 - 1943 (59 years)

Agnes Low Rogers was a Scottish educator and educational psychologist. Early life Agnes Low Rogers was born in Dundee, the daughter of William Thomson Rogers and Janet Low Rogers. She earned a master's degree at the University of St. Andrews in 1908. She passed the Moral Sciences Tripos at Cambridge in 1911, and completed doctoral studies at Teachers College, Columbia University in 1917. Her dissertation, published the following year, was titled Experimental Tests of Mathematical Ability and their Prognostic Value .

#5088

Konstantin Ramul

Konstantin Ramul

1879 - 1975 (96 years)

Konstantin Ramul was an Estonian professor of psychology and longtime chair of psychology at the University of Tartu. He is best known for his work on the history of experimental psychology. Ramul believed that history is dependent upon psychology, though the philosopher of science Ernest Nagel criticized him for "not stat[ing] clearly the type of psychological investigation which is relevant to the historian's task" .

#5089

Minnie Abercrombie

1909 - 1984 (75 years)

Minnie Abercrombie , also known as M. L. J. Abercrombie, was a British zoologist, educationalist and psychologist. She was known for her work on invertebrates and her work in the publishing industry, conducted with her husband, Michael Abercrombie. She also contributed to the theory and practice of education through her teaching, research, lecturing and writing. In particular, she carried out pioneer psychological research into the use of groups in learning with medical, architectural and education students, and she shared with diverse audiences in many countries her extensive knowledge and ex...

#5090

Stefan Błachowski

1889 - 1962 (73 years)

Stefan Błachowski was a Polish psychologist and professor at Poznań University. Life Błachowski was the son of a military physician, Konstanty Błachowski, and Maria Niklas. He graduated from Gymnasium no. V in Lwów and in 1907 began studying philosophy, psychology and philology at Lwów University. In 1909 he transferred briefly to Vienna University, then to Göttingen University . In 1913 he studied biology again at Vienna and successfully defended his doctoral thesis at Göttingen.

#5091

Ethel Dench Puffer Howes

1872 - 1950 (78 years)

Ethel Dench Puffer Howes was an American psychologist, suffragist, and college professor. She taught at Wellesley College, Smith College, and Simmons College. She was Executive Secretary of the National College Equal Suffrage League, and founder of the Institute for the Coordination of Women's Interests at Smith College.

#5092

David Kennedy Fraser

1888 - 1962 (74 years)

David Kennedy Fraser FRSE FEIS was a Scottish psychologist, educator and amateur mathematician. He was an author of several books looking at the education of the handicapped and was closely associated with the Scottish Association for Mental Health. He campaigned vigorously for the rights of handicapped persons.

#5093

Otto Selz

1881 - 1943 (62 years)

Otto Selz was a German psychologist from Munich, Bavaria, who formulated the first non-associationist theory of thinking, in 1913. Influenced by the German phenomenological tradition, Selz used the method of introspection, but unlike his predecessors, his theory developed without the use of images and associations. Wilhelm Wundt used the method of introspection in the 1880s, but thought that higher-level mental processes could not be studied in the scientific laboratory.

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