Discover the minds behind modern psychology in our History of the Month. From behaviorists and social psychologists to pioneers in clinical and developmental studies, we explore their research, theories, and real-world impact. Perfect for psychology aspirants, students, and enthusiasts looking to understand how these thinkers shaped the field.

Charles B. Ferster | 1 November 1922

Charles B. Ferster was an American behaviorist who collaborated with B.F. Skinner on reinforcement theory. He co-authored Schedules of Reinforcement, a cornerstone of operant conditioning, and was among the first to explore autism treatment through applied behavior analysis.

Otto Klineberg | 2 November 1899

Otto Klineberg was a Canadian-American psychologist whose cross-cultural studies challenged racial stereotypes and highlighted the role of environment in shaping intelligence. His findings supported the view that cognitive differences arise from experience rather than biology, and he served as a key expert in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954) case.

Stanley Smith Stevens | 4 November 1906

Stanley Smith Stevens was known for introducing Stevens’ Power Law, which quantified the relationship between stimulus intensity and perceived magnitude. His work transformed psychophysics into a measurable science, and he also coined the term psychophysics while advocating standardized scaling methods still used in research today.

Daniel Gilbert | 5 November 1957

A leading social psychologist, Daniel Gilbert is famous for his research on affective forecasting and how people misjudge their future emotional states. His work explains why humans tend to overestimate long-term happiness or sadness, and before becoming a Harvard professor, he discovered psychology through community-college night classes after dropping out of high school.

Brian Weiss | 6 November 1944

Brian L. Weiss is a psychiatrist best known for introducing past-life regression therapy to mainstream audiences through his book Many Lives, Many Masters. Though controversial, his ideas sparked global interest in the intersection of spirituality and psychotherapy, and he was once a respected chair of psychiatry at Mount Sinai before this career shift.

Emil du Bois-Reymond | 7 November 1818

Emil du Bois-Reymond was a German physiologist who laid the groundwork for neurophysiology by discovering the electrical nature of nerve impulses. His meticulous experiments preceded modern neuroscience, and he was so dedicated to precision that he built his own instruments to measure the faintest nerve currents in frogs.

Hermann Rorschach | 8 November 1884

Hermann Rorschach was the creator of the famous Rorschach Inkblot Test, designed to explore personality through perception. Although he published only one book before his early death at 37, his work revolutionized projective testing in psychology, and his school nickname “Klex,” meaning “inkblot” in German, foreshadowed his life’s work.

Leonard Carmichael | 9 November 1898

Stanley Hall was an American psychologist and educator who advanced child-development studies and later became Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. His work bridged psychology and education administration, and he helped translate key European research into English, shaping early child-psychology curricula across the U.S.

William A. Hunt | 10 November 1903

Robert Hunt was an American psychologist known for his work on perception and learning, particularly individual differences in sensory processes. He helped refine early experimental methods and contributed to understanding how people differ in perceptual accuracy, collaborating closely with educational researchers to adapt perceptual tests for classroom use.

Gordon Allport | 11 November 1897

A pioneer of trait theory, Allport proposed that personality is built from central, cardinal, and secondary traits. His humanistic approach emphasized individuality and personal values. Interestingly, he once met Freud as a student, and the awkward encounter inspired him to move away from psychoanalysis toward personality as conscious, present-focused behavior.

Joseph Matarazzo | 12 November 1925

Joseph D. Matarazzo was a key figure in health psychology who helped define the field and emphasized how behavior influences physical health. He played a major role in establishing health psychology as an APA division, and he advocated for integrating psychological services directly into medical settings long before it became standard practice.

Augustine of Hippo | 13 November 354 AD

Saint Augustine was a philosopher–theologian whose writings influenced early ideas about memory, consciousness, and inner experience—topics that later became central to psychology. He proposed that memory stores impressions of past events and emotions, and he produced one of the earliest introspective accounts of the human mind in Confessions.

Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach | 14 November 1775

Paul Johann Anselm von Feuerbach was a German legal scholar whose work greatly influenced forensic psychology and the early scientific study of criminal behavior. He emphasized how psychological factors shape criminal actions and strongly opposed coercive interrogation practices, and he played a key role in abolishing torture in Bavaria—an important reform that aligned with emerging ideas about human motivation and responsibility.

Lowell Kelly | 15 November 1905

L. Kelly was known for advancing personnel selection and vocational psychology, helping to establish standardized methods for assessing job performance and worker traits. His research contributed significantly to modern industrial-organizational psychology, and he played a key role in shaping large-scale military selection programs during World War II.

Maximilian von Frey | 16 November 1852

Max von Frey was a German physiologist who identified specialized cutaneous receptors for touch, pain, and pressure—foundational contributions to sensory and pain psychology. Using fine mechanical probes, he mapped sensitivity across the skin, and many modern psychophysics methods trace back to his precise instrumentation and threshold measurements.

Lev Vygotsky | 17 November 1896

Lev Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist known for his cultural–historical theory, which proposed that mental functions begin in social interaction before becoming internal processes. He introduced influential concepts like the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which later shaped ideas such as scaffolding in education, and many of his major works were published posthumously because several manuscripts remained unfinished or restricted during his lifetime.

John Langdon Down | 18 November 1828

John Langdon Down was an English physician best known for describing the condition later named Down syndrome. He proposed early medical classifications of intellectual disabilities, helping shift views from moral judgment toward scientific study. Although his terminology reflected the biases of his era, his work encouraged more humane care and laid important foundations for developmental psychology and disability studies.

William Herbert Sheldon | 19 November 1898

William Herbert Sheldon was an American psychologist known for somatotype theory, which linked body types—ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph—to personality traits. Although the theory gained attention in personality and criminology research, it later faced criticism for limited empirical support. Still, Sheldon’s structured rating scales influenced early trait measurement and helped shape standardized approaches in psychological and anthropometric assessment.

Josiah Royce | 20 November 1855

Josiah Royce was an American idealist philosopher whose work influenced early thinking on self, community, and moral responsibility. He argued that identity is shaped through relationships and shared purposes, anticipating modern ideas of social belonging, and his concept of loyalty proposed that meaning comes from commitment to causes beyond oneself—an idea that later shaped moral psychology.

Knight Dunlap | 21 November 1875

Knight Dunlap was an American psychologist who challenged introspection and emphasized objective, measurable behavior long before behaviorism became dominant. He advocated a “motor theory,” suggesting that mental processes are rooted in action and movement rather than passive ideas, and he introduced early methods for controlling experimental variables, helping psychology evolve from philosophy into a laboratory-based science.

Dugald Stewart | 22 November 1753

Dugald Stewart was a Scottish philosopher who advanced the Scottish Common Sense school, shaping early ideas about perception, reasoning, and mind before psychology became a formal science. He emphasized observation, moral philosophy, and mental faculties, influencing later thinkers such as Mill and Bain. His lectures helped shift the study of mind from purely metaphysical debates toward systematic introspection and early empirical approaches.

Robert Zajonc | 23 November 1923

Robert Zajonc was a social psychologist known for his groundbreaking work on emotion and social behavior. He proposed the mere exposure effect, showing that repeated exposure increases liking even without conscious awareness, and he argued that emotional responses can occur before cognitive appraisal—challenging the idea that thinking always precedes feeling. His research reshaped how psychology understands preference formation and affective processing.

Franklin Fearing | 24 November 1892

Franklin Fearing was an American psychologist known for his early work in communication theory and the psychology of emotion. He explored how physiological responses influence emotional experiences, and he helped shape early interdisciplinary connections between psychology, sociology, and communication studies.

Jacqueline Jarrett Goodnow | 25 November 1924

Jacqueline Goodnow was an Australian cognitive and developmental psychologist known for her research on rule-based thinking and the cultural influences on cognition. Her studies showed how children actively construct knowledge, and she co-authored an influential work on everyday decision-making that bridged laboratory findings with real-world contexts.

Franziska Baumgarten | 26 November 1883

Franziska Baumgarten was a pioneering industrial-organizational psychologist who advanced personnel selection and vocational guidance. She developed methods to assess work performance and worker attitudes, and she founded the journal Psychotechnische Zeitschrift, which played a major role in strengthening the early development of applied psychology in Europe.

Gardner Lindzey | 27 November 1920

Gordon Lindzey was a major figure in personality psychology and co-editor of The Handbook of Social Psychology, a foundational text for modern research. He emphasized interdisciplinary approaches to understanding behavior and played a key role in shaping doctoral training standards in psychology across the U.S.

Hans Wallach | 28 November 1904

Hans Wallach was a German-American psychologist known for groundbreaking research in perception, particularly visual constancy and motion. His work demonstrated how the mind maintains stable perceptions despite changing sensory input, and he conducted influential studies while teaching at Swarthmore College for over three decades.

Edith Weisskopf-Joelson | 29 November 1910

Edith Weisskopf-Joelson was a clinical psychologist who emphasized meaning, resilience, and humanistic growth, integrating insights later aligned with logotherapy. She advocated for respectful, culturally sensitive psychotherapy, and after surviving wartime displacement, she became known for teaching psychology with compassion and a strong focus on human dignity.