Many people have heard or maybe know a little bit about some people significant to the field of psychology, but few non-psychologists know how significant they were. On this page we will try to decipher the impact of a few, of the many, psychologists important to their respective fields of study.

One of these such psychologists was Alfred Aldler. Aldler was the premier psychologist at his time. Born in Vienna, Aldler started his career studying ophthalmology, but soon turned to mental disease. He became a prominent member of a psychoanalytical group formed around Sigmund Freud. In 1907 he published his book, Study of Organ Inferiority and Its Physical Compensation. To study psychology of the individual persons that were considered different, Aldler broke away from Freud's group. Alfred Aldler's main contributions included the concept of the inferiority complex and his special treatments of neurosis as the exploitation of shock. He moved to the United States to teach in 1932

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Sigmund Freud is probably one of the most highly notable and highly criticized psychologists of today. Freud was born into a Jewish family, which plays a significant role at the outbreak of World War II. At age the age of 17 he began to study medicine at the University of Vienna. After graduating from the university he left for Paris to study neurology. While in Paris he changed from neurology to psychopathology, a branch of psychology that deals with abnormal workings in the mind. Soon after, Freud began to develop the technique of conversational free association because he saw hypnosis as inadequate. Freud began to use himself to analyze dreams. He would decode his dreams in terms of their organization and marriage. His book "Book Studies of Hysteia[SIC] marked beginning of psychoanalysis and soon refined psychoanalysis as a method of treatment. At the outbreak of W.W.II the Gestapo forced its way in Sigmund's home because of his Jewish heritage. He was given a choice to move or stay, Freud soon relocated to London and from there to the United States. His major work "Interpretation of Dreams was confronted by much controversy and turmoil but Freud stuck to his beliefs and is still considered a pioneer in the entire field of psychology.

Erik Erikson was born in Frankfurt, Germany on June 15, 1902. His father abandoned him before he was born and as a child he soon developed an identity crisis, which lead to many of his studies and theories as a psychologists. After he graduated from high school he had focused on being an artist. While attending art classes in Europe, he would roam around museums and sleep under bridges, living the carefree rebel life. Besides teaching art, in Vienna, he gathered a certificate in Montessori education and one from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Anna Freud psychoanalyzed Erikson personally. He migrated to the United States and taught at the Harvard Medical School and practiced child psychoanalyses privately. He wrote "Childhood and Society" in 1950, analyzing American Indian tribes, Adolph Hitler, Maxim Gorkiy, the American Personality and his basic interpretation of Freudian theory. His most famous work was his 8 stages of Life because Erikson believed that we develop in psychosocial stages instead of psychosexual stages, as thought by Freud. Erik Erikson retired in 1970 and died in 1994.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was another great psychologists. Born in Pennsylvania he attended and taught at Harvard University. His initial career choice was to become a writer but decided to attend Harvard to study psychology. Skinner was once quoted saying

" I had apparently failed as a writer but was it not possible that literature had failed me as a method?"

With a quote of the magnitude of that, you can tell that B.F. Skinner was a man of many ideas. He developed an airtight crib or "baby box." This box was to provide an airtight, air-conditioned, germ free enclosure designed to provide best possible environment for the first two years of an infant's life. Skinner himself used his baby box on his first born child for its first two years of infancy. Burrhus was a promoter of controlled scientific method and soon developed the concept of "Operant Conditioning" where everything we do is shaped by our experience of punishment and reward. His theory suggests that we repeat responses that bring forth negative consequences but also that we respond to things that bring forth positive consequences. Some of his main works include The Behavior of Organisms (1938) and Verbal Behavior (1957). His writings were significant to the field of psychology but not only his theories reached paper. B.F. Skinner's political and social views have reached a wider public through Walden Two and Beyond Freedom and Dignity.

Click here to hear a recorded interview by Armando Machado with B.F. Skinner.

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