~ Famous Psychologists ~

[MysteRy]

Phil McGraw



Philip McGraw who is an American television personality, author, psychologist and the host of the show Dr. Phil that made its mark in 2002 was born in Vinita, Oklahoma on September 1, 1950 to Jerry and Joe Mc Graw. He had two older sisters whose names were Deana and Donna and a younger sister by the name of Brenda. His father was an equipment supplier and he mainly grew up in the oil fields of North Texas. However, his family later moved during Mc Graw’s childhood and his father dreamt of becoming a psychologist. In Overland Park Kansas, Philip attended Shawnee Mission North High school. At the University of Tulsa, he was awarded a football scholarship where he played middle linebacker but unfortunately on November 23, his team was defeated by the University of Houston. Phil’s coach Glen Dobbs retired after that and thus he was shifted to Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.

In 1975, Phil McGraw graduated with a Bachelor of Arts psychology from the Midwestern State University. In 1976, he acquired a Master of Arts in experimental Psychology and in 1979, he earned a doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Texas where he submitted a dissertation titled as “Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Psychological Intervention”. After much ado, he was guided by Frank Lawlis for the doctoral program who eventually also became a regular contributor of psychology to the Dr. Phil television show. McGraw later joined his father in Texas and became a part of his father’s clinic after acquiring his Ph.D.

Phil McGraw and his father presented “Pathways seminars” in collaboration with Thelma Box, a successful texas businesswoman in 1983 to provide training that basically allows individuals to create their own results. Majority of the critics were of the view that Phil and his father had used the same terminologies, phrases and quaint sayings in the seminar that were created by Thelma Box and Dr. Phil had also used them during his show and the Oprah Winfrey show. Phil McGraw on the other hand maintained that his first best seller i.e. Life Strategies was taken from the Pathways seminar although he had never made any contribution to Box in either his TV shows or books. After eight years, McGraw signed an agreement to sell the Pathways Seminar Stock for $325,000 without informing his father or Box about it. Box after that founded her own seminar titled as “Choice”.

In 1990, Phil McGraw had celebrity attention when he made an appearance on Oprah Winfrey show. He has also drawn considerable criticism for his approach to psychology. On October 22, 2003, he announced the formation of Dr. Phil foundation that raises funds to fight child obesity. The foundation also supports other charitable organizations.

[MysteRy]

Philip Zimbardo



Philip George Zimbardo who is a psychologist and professor at Stanford University was born on March 23, 1933 in the New York City to a family of Sicilian immigrants. In 1954, he completed his BA with a triple major in psychology, sociology and anthropology from Brooklyn College.

In 1955, he completed his M.S. in psychology and in 1959; he did his Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University advised by Neal E. Miller. From 1959 to 1960, he taught at Yale University and from there onwards, he taught psychology at the New York University.  He taught at Columbia University from 1967 to 1968. In 1968, he became a part of the faculty at Stanford University. Philip is also the president of Heroic Imagination Project and is well reputed for his prison study in Stanford and the author of several popular psychology books and textbooks for college going students which comprises of The Time Paradox and The Lucifer Effect.

Philip Zimbardo accepted the offer of a tenured position at the University of Stanford in 1971. After acquiring permission from U.S. Office of Naval Research, he carried out his study in which some mentally right individuals were assigned the role of being prisoners or guards in the Psychology basement at the Stanford. Although it was a two week study but it ended in six days as the participants had undergone considerable amount of emotional trauma. Moreover, the students rapidly quirked their roles as guards becoming sadistic and prisoners showed signs of depression and passivity. Although the volunteers had a preconceived idea that the study would take place sometime but because it took place so suddenly in the prison, it put them in a state of shock. The volunteers on the other hand were degraded, shaved and searched and were given their ID numbers and uniforms and the volunteer prison guards escorted them to the cells which isolated them to a large extent that they were unable to let out their individual characteristics. The guards themselves did not have any prior experience of their treatment towards the prisoners but were given freedom by the psychologists to what they please towards the prisoners. Indeed, they wore similar uniforms and were dressed in a thorough professional manner, wore a whistle around the neck and carried a stick which they used in the night. When the experiment commenced, Philip started off with nine guards and nine prisoners and in backup were kept the original volunteers and 3 prisoners and simultaneously the 3 guards occupied the prison at a time.

Philip Zimbardo is greatly recognized for his work and has received the Dagmar and Václav Havel Foundation Vision 97 Award in Prague. He was also awarded the sarcastic IG Nobel Award for Psychology for his report “Politicians’ Uniquely Simple Personalities in 2003”.

[MysteRy]

R. D. Laing



Ronald David Laing (R. D. Laing), a Scottish psychiatrist was born on 7th October 1927 in the Govanhill district of Glasgow. He father was David Park MacNair and his mother was Amelia Glen Laing and he was the only child of his parents. Ronald description of his parents especially his mother’s attitude was somewhat odd. He wrote greatly about mental illness especially in relation to psychosis. His father had served as an electrical engineer in the Royal Arms force and often came home very depressed due to strained relations with his very own brother during Ronald’s teenage years. His mother on the other hand was described as someone who was “psychologically peculiar”. According to his self diagnosis, R. D. Laing had his fair share of problems too suffering from clinical depression and episodic alcoholism which he spoke about in the 1983 BBC Radio interview with Anthony Clare however he was free of these problems before his death. Furthermore, these problems had serious repercussions for him which consequently led to his clinical practice being ceased by the General Medical Council.

R. D. Laing was greatly influenced by existential philosophy as far as causes and treatments of serious mental dysfunction were concerned. With him it was like that he took the feelings the individual client or patient expressed as valid interpretations of lived experience instead of mocking it as some kind of mental disorder. Although he rejected the label but he was associated with the anti-psychiatry movement. Additionally, he was also known to be a thinker of the New Left. Initially, he was educated at Sir John Neilson Cuthbertson Public school and four years after that; he was transferred to Hutchesons’ Grammar School. At school, he was considered to be very clever, sharp, and competitive. Apart from that, Ronald was involved in reading various types of classics and philosophy and he read them from the local library. Due to his taste for music, he was made the associate of the Royal college of Music. At the University of Glasgow, he went on to study medicine and also for several other reasons. Firstly to face life and death and secondly was to become more scientific. From the age of 18, he started to engage into heavy drinking.

At the time of his medical period, he established “Socratic Club” and the philosopher Bertrand Russell agreed upon becoming the president. In 1950, he failed his exams but after a second attempt and spending 6 more months working on a psychiatric unit, he cleared them in 1951. In 1965, he established the Philadelphia Association which he also chaired.

At the age of 61 he died of a heart attack while playing tennis with his friend and colleague Robert W. Firestone.

[MysteRy]

Rensis Likert



A big name in the field of Conflict Management, Rensis Likert was born on August 5, 1903 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. His father, George Herbert was an engineer. Likert graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1962 and in 1964, he married Jane Gibson who worked as a consultant and editor. The couple had two daughters, Elizabeth and Patricia.

Continuing his studies in New York, Rensis Likert graduated from Columbia University in 1932 with a Ph.D. Around this time, he also began his teaching career as an instructor at New York University, New York. By 1935, Likert had become and an assistant professor. For a year after this, Rensis Likert was a member of the faculty at the Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. He was then titled the head of the Division of Program Surveys, Bureau of Agricultural Economics in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. It was also during this time that Likert served as the research director for Life Insurance Agency Management Association (1935-1939). During World War II he was director of the Morale Division of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey (1944-1946). In 1946, Likert returned to the University of Michigan where he was a professor of sociology and psychology until 1970. In 1971, Rensis Likert was named professor emeritus. During his time at Michigan University, Likert also served at the Survey Research Center as its director (1946-1948). Also around this time, Likert formed his own company in Ann Arbor, Rensis Likert Associates. The company’s work was mostly related to management styles and systems in relation to survey research.

Not only did Rensis Likert led a successful teaching career, he was also a writer, contributing to substantial publications such as the Internatinal Encyclopedia of Neurology, Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology. His writing career produced six books mostly about the subject of management. Some of his most widely read books include Morale and Agency Management, 4 volumes, with J.M. Willits, 1940-41, and The Human Organization: Its Management and Value, 1967. Rensis also co-authored with his wife, New Ways of Managing Conflict (1976), published by McGraw-Hill.

Some prestigious positions held by Rensis Likert include being on the board of directors of the American Psychological Association, past president of the American Statistical Association, and a member of the national Academy of Public Administration. During the course of his career, Rensis has been subject to many prestigious awards including the Paul D. Converse Award from the University of Illinois (1955), the James A. Hamilton Award (1962), awards from the Organization Development Council and the McKinsey Foundation for his book New Patterns of Management (1962), a human relations award from the Society for the Advancement of Management (1968), a professional achievement award from the American Board of examiners of Professional Psychologists (1968), outstanding achievement awards from the American Society for Training and Development (1969) and the American Association for Public Opinion Research (1973).

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Robert Cialdini



Robert Cialdini is the author of one of the most important publications on the subjects of psychology and persuasion, Influence: Science and Practice and Influence: Psychology of Persuasion. The book has made its way to the New York Times Business bestsellers List. In addition to this, Cialdini’s famous publication has been translated into twenty-seven language and has sold over two million copies. Influence: Science and Practice and Influence: Psychology of Persuasion appeared on the Fortune Magazine’s list of 75 Smartest Business Books and on CEO Read’s list of 100 Best Business Books of All Time. The book is a result of years of study into the reasons that people comply with requests in business settings. It ranks consistently within the top one half of one percent of books sold on Amazon.com

Cialdini is an expert on how cutting-edge persuasion techniques can be used to encourage environmentally-responsible behavior. Cialdini has been through extensive scholarly training in the psychology of influence. With over 30 years of research and study on the subject, Robert Cialdini is considered an expert internationally in the fields of negotiation, persuasion and compliance. He spent his entire career on researching why people comply with requests. Because of his international reputation in the field and ethical business and policy application, Robert Cialdini is often referred to as the Godfather of Influence. Dr. Cialdini is the most cited social psychologist in the world today in the fields of influence and persuasion. According to Dr. Cialdini, there are six key principles of persuasion. These principles are reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority and liking.

Dr. Robert Cialdini earned a PhD from the University of North Carolina and post doctoral training from Columbia University. His credentials include visiting scholar appointments at Ohio State University, the University of California, the Annenberg School of Communications, and the Graduate School of Business of Stanford University. At present, he is the Regents’ Professor of Psychology and Marketing in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. He also serves as Member of Scientific Advisory Board at OPOWER, Inc. In addition to this, Robert Cialdini is the president of Influence at Work, an organization focusing on ethical influence training, corporate keynote programs, and the CMCT (Cialdini Method Certified Trainer) program. His list of clients includes many big names such as Google, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Bayer, Coca Cola, KPMG, AstraZeneca, Ericsson, Kodak, Merrill Lynch, Nationwide Insurance, Pfizer, AAA, Northern Trust, IBM, Prudential, The Mayo Clinic, GlaxoSmithKline, Harvard University – Kennedy School, The Weather Channel, the United States Department of Justice, and NATO.

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Robert Hare



An expert on the nature and implications of psychopathy, Robert Hare is the creator of the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) and its revision, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), for the reliable and valid assessment of psychopathy. For more than four decades, Robert Hare has taught and conducted research at the University of British Columbia where he now serves as Emeritus Professor of Psychology.

An expert researcher in the field of criminal psychology, Robert Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist is used to predict the likelihood of violent behavior and diagnose cases of psychopathy. Hare possesses a strong academic career dedicated to the investigation of psychopathy, its nature, assessment, and implications for mental health and criminal justice. He has authored several books, of which the most widely read is Without Conscience: the Disturbing World of the Psychopaths among Us. He has also written more than a hundred scientific articles on psychopathy.
Robert Hare provides consultation to various British and North American prison services. He also advises the FBI’s Child Abduction and Serial Murder Investigative Resources Center and RCMP. He is also a member of the FBI Serial Murder Working Group. In addition to this, Robert Hare is the president of Darkstone Research Group Ltd., a forensic research and consulting firm. Hare has also served as a member of the Advisory Panel established by Her Majesty’s Prison Service to develop new programs for the treatment of psychopathic offenders. In collaboration with Paul Babiak, Robert Hare has extended the theory and research on psychopathy to the business and corporate world by publishing the book, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths go to Work (2006). Hare spends a lot of his time lecturing on psychopathy and on the use and misuse of the PCL-R in the mental health and criminal justice systems.

For his exceptional services to the study of psychopathy, Robert Hare has received a number of prestigious awards. Some of these awards include the Silver Medal of the Queen Sophia Center in Spain; the Canadian Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Applications of Psychology; the American Academy of Forensic Psychology Award for Distinguished Applications to the Field of Forensic Psychology; the Isaac Ray Award presented by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law for Outstanding Contributions to Forensic Psychiatry and Psychiatric Jurisprudence; the B. Jaye Anno Award for Excellence in Communication, presented by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care; the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy; the CPA Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology; the CPA Donald O. Hebb Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology as a Science, and the Order of Canada.

Robert Hare was born in 1934 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He earned a Ph.D in experimental psychology from the University of Western Ontario in 1963.

[MysteRy]

Robert Sternberg



The American psychologist and psychometrician, Robert Jeffrey Sternberg is currently a provost at Oklahoma State University. He formerly served as the the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University, IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University, and the President of the American Psychological Association.

Robert Sternberg was born on December 9, 1949 in New Jersey. From an early age, Sternberg developed an interest in the study of psychology. He suffered from test anxiety. After performing poorly on an exam, Sternberg realized that tests could not be an accurate measure of one’s intelligence, knowledge and abilities. Upon retaking the same test in a different room with younger students, Sternberg felt more confident and performed better, gaining a higher score. A year later, Sternberg developed his own intelligence test which was named the Sternberg Test of Mental Ability (STOMA).

Sternberg’s academic experience clearly showed that most standard tests were poor tools of measuring mental abilities of a person. In light of Sternberg’s poor performance in his Introductory Psychology class, Sternberg was advised to pursue a different major by his professor. However, Sternberg was determined to study psychology. He went on to complete a B.A in psychology from Yale and then earned his PhD from Stanford in 1975.

He returned to Yale after earning his PhD and became a professor of psychology after which he went on to becoming the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University and Provost and professor of psychology at Oklahoma State University.

Robert Sternberg is an expert researcher in the areas of creativity, intelligence, cognitive styles and love. He is the founder of the triarchic theory of intelligence which focuses on the concept of successful intelligence. The theory consists of three main elements; analytical intelligence, creative intelligence and practical intelligence, where analytical intelligence refers to problem solving abilities, creative intelligence means making use of prior knowledge to deal with new situations and practical intelligence is all about the ability to adapt to a changing world.

Another fame winning credit of Robert Sternberg is his famous triangular theory of love. Sternberg has spent a large portion of his career researching love. According to this theory, commitment, passion and intimacy are the three main components of love. The combination of these three elements in different ways results in different types of love.

Sternberg’s contributions to the world of psychology are many. In addition to serving as the President of the American Psychological Association(2003), Robert Sternberg has written more than 1200 articles, book chapters and books. He has been awarded ten honorary doctorates and has won numerous prestigious awards including the Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Association for Gifted Children in 1985, the James McKeen Cattell Award from the American Psychological Society in 1999 and the E.L. Thorndike Award for Achievement in Educational Psychology from the APA in 2003. In addition to this, the American Psychologial Association listed Robert Sternberg as one of the top 100
psychologists of the twentieth century.

[MysteRy]

Roger Sperry



Roger W. Sperry was an American Psychobiologist who discovered that the human brain is actually made up of two minds. He found out that both the left and right parts of the human brain have specialized functions and that the two sides can operate independently.

Roger Sperry was born on August 20, 1913 in Hartford, Connecticut. Sperry was raised by his mother since his father died when he was only 11 years old. Up till high school, Sperry was educated at local public schools after which he obtained a scholarship to Oberlin College in Ohio where he majored in English. However, his interest developed in undergraduate psychology courses taught by R.H. Stetson, an expert on the physiology of speech. After completing a BA in English in 1935, for two years, Sperry worked with Stetson as a graduate assistant moving on to earning an MA in psychology in 1937.

Extremely dedicated to his field, Sperry began working on research projects at the University of Chicago where he worked under the wing renowned biologist Paul Weiss, Sperry conducted research on the organization of the central nervous system. Scientists of that time held the belief that the connections of the nervous system had to be very exact to work properly. Weiss negated the theory by surgically crossing a subject’s nerve connections after which the subject’s behavior did not change. Weiss concluded that it was not necessary for a nerve to connect to any particular location to function correctly. Sperry tested Weiss’s claim by performing his own experiment. He surgically crossed the nerves that controlled the hind leg muscles of a rat. According to Weiss’s theory each nerve should eventually learn to control the muscle to which it was now connected but when this did not happen, Sperry was able to disprove Weiss’s research. This became the basis of Sperry’s doctoral dissertation, ‘Functional results of crossing nerves and transposing muscles in the fore and hind limbs of the rat’. In 1941, Roger Sperry earned a PhD in zoology from the University of Chicago. Sperry conducted more experiments to prove that genetic mechanisms determine some basic behavioral patterns.

In 1941, Sperry began working in the laboratory of the famous psychologist Karl S. Lashley. In 1942, Lashley became director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in Orange Park, Florida where Sperry joined him on a Harvard biology research fellowship. During this time, Sperry disproved some Gestalt psychology theories as well as some theories of Lashley.

In 1946, Sperry became an assistant professor at the University of Chicago. In 1954 he transferred to the California Institute of Technology where he conducted research on split-brain functions that he had first investigated when he worked at the Yerkes Laboratory. Over the years, through his research and findings, Sperry shattered many important beliefs of scientists and neurosurgeons. By late 1960s, Sperry had begun publishing technical papers on his split-brain findings. His work and the importance of his findings were recognized and he was given the prestigious Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award along with $15,000 grant in 1979. In 1981, Roger Sperry was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to the fields of medicine and psychology. He shared it with two other scientists, Torsten N. Wieseland David H. Hubel.

[MysteRy]

Rollo May



The extential psychologist, Rollo May was born on in Ada, Ohio on April 21, 1909. Unfortunately, May did not experience a very happy childhood. Never getting along, his parents got divorced and his sister suffered a psychotic breakdown.

Rollo May studied English at Michigan State and graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College after which he went to Greece and taught English for three years at Anatolia College. During this time, May spent some time as an itinerant artist studying briefly with Alfred Adler. Upon returning to the US, May entered a seminary where he made friends with Paul Tillich, an existentialist theologian who heavily influenced May’s thinking. In 1938, May received his BD.

May’s health declined significantly when he suffered tuberculosis due to which he had to spend three years in a sanatorium. Facing the possibility of death, this period was a turning point in May’s life. He spent most of his time during these days reading various pieces of literature. Among the authors he read was Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish religious writer. Kierkegaard’s work heavily inspired the extential movement and also became the basis of inspiration for Rollo May’s theory.

May eventually completed his education in 1949 at Columbia University earning a PhD in clinical psychology from Teachers College. May’s PhD was the first that Columbia University awarded in clinical psychology. After becoming a PhD doctor, May set out to teach at some of the top schools in the country. In 1958, along with Ernest Angel and Henri Ellenberger, May edited the book Existence. This book is known to introduce extential psychology to the United States.

Rollo May very rightly established the fact that a person develops through stages. According to him, all individuals experience a number of stages throughout their lifetimes. He identified these stages as Innocence, the stage of pre-self-consciousness, Rebellion, when a person believe in their free will without understanding the responsibilities that accompany freedom. This is followed by the stage of Decision, where a person grasps his/her independence from one’s parents and makes decisions about what to do with his/her life. Next comes the Ordinary stage where individuals experience a developed sense of ego and responsibility. During this point in life, people feel overwhelmed when they are unable to meet responsibilities. This is when they give in to socially acceptable norms and values. Finally, an
individual identifies their authentic self in Extential or Creative stage where he/she experiences self actualization. May’s stages do not necessarily come one after the other. Different people can experience these stages at different times in their lives.

Although May was an extential psychologist, he was also highly under the influence of other philosophical theories and humanism. He often studied the works of Freud and also believed Otto Rank to be a genius. May’s own contributions to extential psychology are many. He founded the Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center in San Francisco and also published numerous articles. Some of his best works include The Courage to Create and Love & Will. Spending the last years of his life in Tiburon, California, Rollo May passed away in the October of 1994.

[MysteRy]

Sigmund Freud



Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg, Austria on May 6, 1856. Freud is mainly associated with neuropsychology. He contributed a lot to the field through his theories and practice. Freud began by studying hysteria and then sexuality. Sigmund Freud was a very controversial personality of the 20th century. His studies have a lot to do with dreams. Freud defined what he named the Oedipus complex and also presented the three stages of immature sexual development.

When he was four years old, Freud’s family moved to Vienna, where he would live and work for the most of his life. In 1881, Freud received his degree in medical and got engaged to be married a year later. He had six children. His youngest daughter Anna went on to become a prominent psychoanalyst. Upon graduation, Freud set up his own private practice treating a variety of psychological disorders. However, Sigmund Freud preferred and considered himself to be a scientist first and then a doctor. He therefore, set out to comprehend human experiences and knowledge.

Since early on in his career, Freud was highly influenced by the work of his colleague and friend, Josef Breuer who discovered the fact that upon encouraging a patient of hysteria to talk candidly about the earliest signs and incidents of hysteria, the symptoms slowly fade away. Taking inspiration from Breuer, Freud hypothesized that neurosis originated from intensely distressing experiences that had happened in the patient’s past. According to Freud, the original incidents are forgotten and concealed from consciousness. Freud treated his patients by encouraging his patients to think about and remember the experience in order to bring it back to the conscious and while recalling the experience, the patient would confront it coming to terms with it both emotionally and intellectually. Freud believed this way, the patient can let it out and get rid of his/her neurotic condition. The findings and theories of Freud and Breuer together were published in 1895 in Studies in Hysteria.

After working for a long time together, Breuer decided to discontinue working with Freud because he thought Freud stressed overly on the sexual implications and origins of a neurotic patient and was not willing to consider other factors. Freud on the other hand, supported his own argument and published The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900 followed by The Psychopathology of Everyday Life in 1901 and Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality in 1905. Most of his contemporaries saw Freud’s work to be overplayed and disreputable. Freud was invited to the United States in 1909 to deliver a series of lectures. It was after these lectures that Sigmund Freud gained immense fame. Also contributing to his fame was his book, Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1916).

Freud Sigmund’s life of curiosity and inquiry ended on September 23, 1939 when he committed suicide. Freud had requested a lethally high dose of morphine from his doctor during exiling in England. Freud had been fighting oral cancer.

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Simon Baron-Cohen



A Cognitive Neuroscientist, Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen was born on August 15, 1958. He is a professor of Developmental Psychopathology at Cambridge University, United Kingdom in the departments of Experimental Psychology and Psychiatry. Dr. Simon is also the Director of the University of Cambridge’s Autism Research Center and a Fellow of Trinity College. His exceptional work on autism has gained him much recognition. He is also best known for his theory, according to which, autism involved degrees of mind blindness. In other words, delayed development of theory of mind. In another famous theory, Cohen states that autism is an extreme form of the male brain.

Highly educated in his field of study, Baron-Cohen received a BA degree in Human Sciences from New College, Oxford. He also holds an MPhil in Clinical Psychology from the Institute of Psychiatry from King’s College, London. Baron-Cohen earned his PhD in Psychology from the University College London under the supervision of Uta Frith.

Simon Baron-Cohen has conducted a number of extensive research projects. He co-authored the first study showing that children with autism experience delays in the development of a theory of mind (1985). His research over the next 10 years provided plenty of evidence for the Theory of Mind deficit. Based on more findings, Baron-Cohen proposed a model of the development of mindreading. His work also includes conducting brain imaging to examine the autistic brain. His 1990s hypothesis claimed that typical sex differences may provide a neurobiological and psychological understanding
of autism proposing the autism is an extreme form of the male brain. He believes that autism may be a result of hyper-masculinization. Baron-Cohen’s book, The Essential Difference (2003) explains gender differences and its relationship to autism. In late 1990s, Baron-Cohen launched the Cambridge Longitudinal Foetal Testosterone, a research program for children of mothers who had amniocentesis. Baron-Cohen also created software for the special education of children with autism. The software is used to teach autistic children to learn and understand emotions. Synasthesia is another research area Baron-Cohen is linked with. Synathesia is a neurological condition in which a sensation in one modality triggers a perception in another modality. Baron-Cohen and his colleagues are the first ones to prove the existence of synathesia using neuroimaging. In addition to this, Simon Baron-Cohen holds position as the co-editor in chief of the journal, Molecular Autism. He is also Chairman of the NICE Guideline Development Group for adults with autism.

Baron-Cohen has been recognized for his contributions to psychology through many prestigious awards including the Spearman Medal from the British Psychological Society (BPS), the McAndless Award from the American Psychological Association, and the May Davison Award for Clinical Psychology from the BPS, and the President’s Award from the BPS.

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Solomon Asch



The pioneer of Gestalt psychology and Social psychology, Solomon E. Asch was born in Warsaw, Poland on September 14, 1907. Asch migrated to the United States in 1920 at the age of 13. He lived with his family in the Lower East Side of Manhattan learning English language by reading Charles Dickens. In 1928, Solomon Asch earned his bachelor’s degree from the College of the City of New York after which he went to Columbia University. At Columbia, Asch was mentored by Max Wertheimer who highly influenced Asch’s views on Gestalt. Asch received his master’s degree in 1930 followed by PhD in 1932.

When Hitler was in full power during World War II, Asch studied the impact and consequences of indoctrination and propaganda. During this time, Asch was a professor at the psychology department of Brooklyn College. Solomon Asch also taught at Swarthmore College for 19 years. Also at Swarthmore College, Asch worked with Wolfgang Köhler, a renowned Gestalt psychologist. Asch later received the prestigious title of Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

It was during the 1950s that Solomon Asch became famous due to his series of experiments better known as the Asch conformity experiments. These experiments showed the effects of social pressure on conformity. During this time, Asch became widely recognized for his theories on social psychology. Many of his ideas left a permanent impact on psychology. Solomon Asch served as the director and professor of psychology at the Institute for Cognitive Studies at Rutgers University from 1966 to 1972.

While Solomon Asch left many lasting impacts on the field of psychology, his studies on conformity also known as Asch Paradigms are by far his most recognized achievement. The purpose of these experiments was to prove the significance of conformity in social settings. Many following researchers were heavily influenced by Asch’s research and studies. Among these was Stanley Milgram who was supervised by Asch during his PhD at Harvard University.

Also among his greatest achievements is Solomon Asch’s textbook, Social Psychology (1952) which is an embodiment of his theories. More publications by Asch include, Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgment (1951), Opinions and social pressure (1955), Studies of independence and conformity: A minority of one against a unanimous majority (1956) and Social psychology (1987).

Solomon Asch passed away on February 20, 1996 in Haverford, Pennsylvania at the age of 88.

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Stanley Milgram



Stanley Milgram was born on August 15, 1933 in the New York City to a Hungarian father and Jewish mother. He was excellent in his studies and a great team leader among his friends. He studied in James Monroe High School. Due to his diligence and hard work, he acquired his Bachelor degree in Political Science from Queen’s college, New York in 1954 which was tuition free. Although initially being rejected from an underground programme at Harvard, he was later accepted after enrolling himself as a student in Harvard’s office of special students. Thus in 1960, he received his Ph.D in Social Psychology from Harvard University.

In general, Milgram preferred to handle subjects that were related to common man. For example, he was questioned by his mother-in-law once as to why people don’t quit their seats on the subway to which he replied that these people were unable to act against each other. Much later, his students went out to investigate and it was proved that his theory was accurate.

In 1974, he published Obedience to Authority, an experiment to analyze the willingness of the participants to obey a figure that was authoritative to them. This was in alliance with their personal conscience. In July 1961, the experiments started when the German Nazi War criminal Adolf Eichmann was tried. Stanley Milgram made use of his psychological study to find out whether Eichmann and his accomplices did it for their own mutual purposes? However, his testing proved that the millions of accomplices were following orders and at the same time go against their moral beliefs. These experiments have been carried out across many cultures, societies and globes. Apparently, these experiments have been termed physically and psychologically abusive and perceive a very controversial aspect of Psychology.

Besides, an anti-social behavior experiment was carried out by Stanley Milgram to find out the relation between media consumption and anti-social behavior. It also gave the opportunity of stealing money or donating it to charity. On the other hand, Milgram also developed the lost letter experiment which entails the co-operation and extending hand of people towards strangers and their attitude towards other groups. It happens so when they planted sealed and stamped letters in public places which were for important units such as individuals and favorable organization such as medical and research institutes and for stigmatized organization such as Friends of the Nazi Party. Strangely, letter to the favorable organizations and individuals were mailed where as those to stigmatized organizations were not.

For his achievements mainly for his work on obedience, he was awarded Annual Social Psychology Award by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1974. He died in New York city in 1984 at the age of 51 leaving behind his widow and two children.

[MysteRy]

Steven Pinker



A Canadian, Steven Arthur Pinker was born on September 18, 1954 in Montreal, Canada to a middle class Jewish family. His father was a lawyer who initially worked as a manafacturer’s representative and his mother was a homemaker, a guidance counsellor and then a high school vice principal. Pinker has two younger siblings too. His sister Susan Pinker is a psychologist by profession and author of the book The Sexual Paradox whereas his brother designs policies and analyzes them for the Canadian government. Known to be a popular psychologist, linguist, scientist and author, Pinker is a professor of Harvard University having completed his BA degree in Psychology at McGill University and then earned his PhD degree in experimental Psychology from Harvard University. He is the one who advocated the computational theory of mind and evolutionary psychology. Steven has six books to his credit; Work and rules, the blank slate, the stuff of thought, the better Angels of our nature, how the mind works and the language instinct. His latter book has been criticized by Jeffrey Elman’s in his book, Rethinking innateness where he defended the connectionist approach. The other books are a combination of cognitive science, evolutionary psychology and behavioral genetics. Steven Pinker has many researches related to language and cognition. Famous for his work on the theory of language acquisition, he says that the human mind is not complex and comprises of various adaptive mental facilities. Another important element of his theory is the human cognition that works not only among sensory features but also combinatorial symbol manipulation. In the language instinct written by Noam Chomsky, he modified his work by saying that evolution was due to natural selection.  Pinker has had many influences in his life namely Thomas Sowell, Noam Chomsky, Leda Cosmides, John Tooby, Richard Dawkins and Thomas Schelling.  Pinker has written various other books such as Language Learnability and Language Development, Connections and Symbols, Visual Cognition, Lexical and Conceptual Semantics and Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language.

Pinker has also received many awards for his contribution such as Troland Award, Henry Dale Prize, Walter P Kistler Book Award, Humanist of the Year award and George Miller Prize. He got married in 1980 to Nancy Etcoff and they divorced in 1992. He married again in 1995 to Ilavenil Subbiah and they divorced too. He got married again to Rebecca Goldstein who is a philosopher and novelist and has two stepdaughters.

In 2004, Steven Pinker was listed in the Time Magazine of the 100 most influential scientists in the world. He has won the Early Career Award for his research in Cognitive Psychology and the Troland Research Award from the National academy of Sciences.

[MysteRy]

Søren Kierkegaard



Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, a Danish religious author, theologian and philosopher was born on 5th May 1813 to a wealthy family in Copenhagen. Before marrying his father Michael Pedersen Kierkegard, his mother Ane Sorensdatter Lund Kiekegard had served as a maid in the same household. Her mother was not very pretty or educated in fact she was quite plain. On the contrary, her father was a strict person and appeared as someone who was very dull and dry and managed to hide his imagination that was so active with his great age. In 1830, he attended school and then went to the Copenhagen University to study theology. Søren is regarded to be the father of existentialism which consisted of three spheres i.e. human existence, knight of faith and infinite qualitative distinction. His other interests were Christianity, metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, ethics, psychology and philosophy. During his time, he criticized the works of Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, Fredrick Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Not only this, but he was also not in favor of the state and the practice of Christianity carried out in the church of Denmark.

Søren Kierkegaard was the first existentialist philosopher. All his working pertaining to this field dealt with how one lives single handedly as an individual giving more importance to human reality rather than abstract thinking focusing on commitment and personal choice. As far as his theological work is concerned, it is oriented towards Christian ethics i.e. the institution of the Church and the difference regarding the proof of Christianity. He also mentioned about the individuals subjective relationship with Jesus Christ. Basically, most of his work is in relation to Christian love. His psychological work which was inspired by Socrates and the Socratic Method discovered the emotions and feelings that an individual goes through while having to make difficult choices in his life. Søren’s previous work was written with pseudonyms which presented dialogue about viewpoints that were complex in nature. He also did that for critique. Many books were written by him such as Upbuilding Discourse dedicated to the single individual under his own name who wanted to explore the meaning of his work.

Generally, scientists were of the view that they can learn about the world through observation but Søren Kierkegaard completely rubbished saying that it could not explore the insight of the spiritual world. He really liked the comedies of Ludvig Holberg, philosophy of Christian Wolff and the writings of Georg Johann Hamann especially those with reference to Plato and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. He died on 11th November, 1855 at the age of 42. Many of the 20th century philosophers have drawn inspiration from Søren and his work valuing the importance of individual.