Question

Name 6 who's who in psychology, that is, the name of the psychologists, their perspectives, theories, and Contributions.

Answer 1

• There have been many psychologists who have made huge contributions to the field of psychology and given us theories which are still used as a foundation for further studies.Some of them are as follows:-
• B.F Skinner-He contributed with behaviourism school of psychology.There are so many therapies which have been made based on behaviourist perspective,like behavior modification and token economies. He also gave concepts of operant conditioning and schedules of reinforcement.
• Behaviourism school of thought means, that all behaviors are acquired through the process of conditioning. Conditioning happens through interaction with the environment. Behaviorists believe that our behavioural responses to environmental stimuli shape our actions.
• Jean Piaget-He contributed his theory of cognitive development which helped to understand the intellectual and cognitive development in children.His work contributed to the growth of developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and education reform.His theoy focused on how children acquire knowlegde via four stages,viz,sensorimotor,preoperational,concrete operational and formal operational.
• Sigmund Freud-He is considered to be the father of psychoanalysis,and gave the psychoanalytic perspective and theory,which has created maximum impact in the field of psychology.In his theory,he talked about the unconscious mind and how our repressed desires and needs become the cause of our anxiety and conflicts.His work contributed to our understanding of personality, clinical psychology, human development, and abnormal psychology.
• Albert Bandura-He is considered to be at the forefront to bring about the cognitive revolution.He gave the social learning theory which focused upon how we acquire or learn behaviour through observation,imitation and modeling.The famous Bobo doll experiment contributed to this understanding of observational learning.
• Ivan Pavlov-He gave classical conditioning and made behaviourism school rise.Classical conditioning is a learning process which occurs by forming associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.He gave the classic dog experiment to explain the principles of classical conditioning.
• William James-He is considered to be father of psychology who gave functionalism school of thought.His Principles of psychology became the most important contribution which helped to establish psychology as a science.Functionalism focuses on the purpose of consciousness and behaviour rather than structure or elements of consciousness.