Psychology is a centuries-old field of study that examines the human experience. Until the mid-19th Century, those studies were called philosophy. After psychology broke away from philosophical contemplation - particularly in the discipline's early days, it was sometimes a cruel science. Immoral and unethical practices litter this field's history.
To be generous, we might consider the past psychologists' work a matter of the ends justifying the means. After all, we learned plenty from them, including what not to do. To wit, today's psychologists take extra care to ensure study subjects - even of the furry variety, are neither mistreated nor harmed.
But nobody says psychology is devoid of controversy. Superprof now highlights eight of the most famous psychologists today (and four honourable mentions). They make this list for their contributions to the science, not for their morality, personal or political views.
Arthur Bandura
Dr Bandura doesn't technically belong on this list as he passed away in 2021. But his work was so impactful that today's most famous psychologists are still exploring his theories. He refined Dr B. F. Skinner's Social Learning theory and demonstrated observational learning.
Dr Bandura more rightly belongs to the previous generation of psychologists. He's on our list of famous psychologists today because his work was so groundbreaking. That doesn't trivialise the fact that his most famous experiment is considered unethical by today's standards. But we might consider even that aspect beneficial as it helped to shape today's ethics standards in psychological research.
Today's psychologists have yet to unpack everything his early-60s Bobo Doll Experiment revealed. His studies in aggression and learned behaviour remain one of the science's most famous psychology experiments.
James Alcock
Is there anyone more despicable than those who prey on the emotionally vulnerable? Dr Alcock doesn't seem to think so. This Canadian profession of psychology and amateur magician researches parapsychological phenomena. Not to give them any credence but to debunk them.
Dr Alcock is renowned for reviewing research into supposed supernatural events. Invariably, he finds flaws in research methodology and practices. He's authored several books, among them Give the Null Hypothesis a Chance. The Null Hypothesis eschews the 'no paranormal activity this time' claim, encouraging readers to embrace the 'no such activity exists' facts.
Steven Pinker
Dr Pinker's resume is so long it rivals his list of accolades. This Canadian-born psychologist specialises in cognitive science, experimental psychology and evolutionary psychology. That last posits that, as the human body has evolved to optimise its functions, so too has the human mind. He also embraces the computational theory of mind, a theory that posits the human mind works like a computer.
Dr Pinker is renowned for tireless work across disciplines, even merging disciplines like linguistics, cognitive science and psychology. But he's equally famous for his many books. The Better Angels of Our Nature is perhaps his best-known work. It discusses how human violence has decreased over the centuries and what caused the lessening.
Susan Fiske
Dr Fiske comes from a long line of social activists and psychologists. She followed her father's career path (psychology) while honouring her mother's work in social research. Dr Fiske is known for the Ambivalent Sexism theory, Power-as-Control theory and the Stereotype Content Model. This model posits people's tendency to view social groups along two axes: competence and warmth.
As you can tell by this list of famous psychologists today, the field of psychology is typically male-dominated. But it's not a men-only discipline anymore. Dr Fiske joins the legions of famous female psychologists with her studies in gender relations and gender differences.
Daniel Kahneman
Many of today's most famous psychologists blur discipline lines but Dr Kahneman may be the most unusual example of such. To our knowledge, he's the only psychologist to ever win a Nobel Prize in economics. He shares this prize with economist Vernon Smith for their work in behavioural economics.
Dr Kahneman often collaborates with other experts across many fields. His work alongside cognitive psychologist Amos Tversky resulted in the Prospect Theory. It states that individuals assess their losses and gains asymmetrically. He posits that losses may have twice as strong an impact on a person's psychology than any gains.
Martin Seligman
Today, the self-help industry rakes in billions of dollars a year from book and video sales, retreats and seminars. It's not a new concept; even in Antiquity, people debated aspects of eudaimonia - well-being and flourishing. We might credit Napoleon Hill and Dale Carnegie as the most influential self-help authors of the 20th Century.
Dr Seligman now carries that torch. His reputation as a psychologist gives his writings on well-being and positive psychology extra weight. But he's not all fluff and happy feelings. His 1960s experiments into learned helplessness inform today's psychologists' treatments for depression.
Jordan Peterson
Dr Peterson has conducted research in various areas of human psychology, notably in familial alcoholism. He's written/co-authored more than 100 academic papers and explored various fields of psychology, from political to creative. But his true claim to fame is fame. Jordan Peterson is one of the most accessible psychologists; he doesn't stint on sharing his time and ideas.
He has capitalised on social media, growing a millions-strong following. Despite those numbers, Dr Peterson is not without controversy. The public seems divided over his seemingly archaic views, particularly on gender and equality. Still, if only for the exposure he gets, he is one of the most famous psychologists today.
Janet E. Helms
Dr Helms is renowned for her ethnic minority studies. She developed the Theory of Racial Identity to emphasise that race, culture and gender help shape personality. She further posits that these personal factors help determine counselling styles. But her most impactful discovery must be how race and gender impact mental health.
Dr Helms, who is Black, decided she wanted to work with autistic children when she was eight years old. But when she entered university, she encountered abject racism, which turned her focus to racial and multicultural issues. At the time, such matters weren't regarded as worthy of study; we might say she pioneered the work in this field.
Honourable Mentions
Clinicians of other specialities often blur the line between psychology and their areas of practice. That shouldn't come as any surprise, considering that psychology is the study of the human mind and behaviours. These four doctors explore how the human mind works as they research other areas of the human experience.
Judith Lewis Herman
Dr Herman is a psychiatrist and researcher who studies incest and traumatic stress. She's renowned for distinguishing between Type I trauma - a one-off traumatic event, and Type II, which represents chronic, enduring or repeated trauma. She established Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) as a mental disorder separate from PTSD.
She also formulated the three-stage sequence for trauma treatment. First, establish safety, then use psychology to work through the trauma. Finally, graduate the patient to their post-trauma life. Dr Herman may not be a psychologist but she has written some of the best books about psychology and the human experience.
Rachel Yehuda
In a sense, Dr Yehuda picks up where Dr Herman leaves off. She too is a psychiatrist as well as a professor of neuroscience. She leads the PTSD clinical research program at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in New York City. Her work is vital to understanding the physical impacts of traumatic stress, focusing particularly on its neurobiological effects.
As far as she's concerned, her studies into traumatic stress haven't yet gone deep enough. She studies risk and resilience factors of the human psyche and searches for biological predictors of treatment responses. She's established blood biomarkers for PTSD and has earned patents in the US and Europe for PTSD diagnosis and treatment. She contends that trauma is inter-generational and PSTD can be inherited.
Gabor Maté
Dr Maté is a physician who spent 12 years working with drug-addicted populations in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was officially hired to administer methadone and other medical interventions through the Portland Hotel clinic. Over time, he realised that his patients' addictions were rooted in trauma.
Traumatic events shattered his early life, too. He recognised himself in his addicted patients' behaviours, which set him to explore developmental psychology and the effects of stress and addiction. He's authored five books, including one that studies attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Chris Mason
Dr Mason also considers trauma the main impact on human psychology, but he takes his studies to the subcellular level. He is a professor of genomics and biophysics, renowned for helping establish the International MetaSUB Consortium. This organisation studies metagenomics in urban environments, an essential toolk to ensure public health.
But we're more impressed with Dr Mason's research in epigenetics. He's contributing to a growing body of work that proves trauma is inherited and its effects are generational.
Like Drs Yehuda and Maté, he intuits that the genes of a traumatised person express differently than those who've not suffered a particular trauma. His cutting-edge research may help explain why mental and behavioural issues run in families.
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Enjoy this article very much. I did not agree with all the assessments particularly that of Jordan Peterson in regard to the pertinents of his belief system as archaic. Truth is immutable and people have not changed since far before the beginning of the written word as proven by the first philosophers’ written words.