1. Sigmund Freud—Austrian doctor who founded the field of psychology. He introduced the ideas surrounding the unconscious, neuroses, dream analysis, psychosexual development, and psychoanalysis. Overall, many have viewed Freud as a pessimist: in his work Civilization and Discontents, he argues that each person’s individual desires will always clash with society’s which brings about dissatisfaction and restlessness.

Associated Terms

• Id—a person’s basic drives (food, sleep, sex) and strives to achieve pleasure/ pleasure principle (unconscious)
  

• Ego—a person’s drive that mediates between id desires and reality. The ego strives toward reality principle.It asks the question, “How can I realistically fulfill my wants?” The ego hide the id’s drives (partly in unconscious). In order for a person to overcome his ego, he employs defense mechanisms. For instance, he may deny his sexual desires for his long-time crush because she has a boyfriend.

• Superego—the “conscience;” strives for ideals of ego and is partly unconscious. The superego brings feelings of guilt/shame when the individual does not follow ego ideals. The superego is thought to be the internalization of an authority figure.

• Oedipus Complex—a man’s unconscious desire to have a sexual relationship with his mother. Yet, he fears angering his father with his passions, so he internalizes father’s rules to appease his father. He resolves the Oedipus complex through adopting his father’s rules and rituals (which is identification).

• Neurotic—a person who experiences frustration in fulfilling the id’s and superego’s desires. As a result, the person may experience anxiety, depression, or some other disorder as a way of trying to resolve his inner conflict.

• Psychoanalysis—a form of therapy in which the neurotic gains relief through free association and dream analysis. A person free associates when they say everything that comes to mind. Free association helps open the doors to desires of unconscious because the it forces the individual to not refrain from saying all her thoughts. As a result, the neurotic will begin to understand her desires better and fulfill them in healthier ways.

• Transference—the idea that a person can unconsciously transfer a past relationship onto another relationship. For instance, a son may have had a troubled relationship with his mother, and when he sees another woman who looks just like her, he immediately dislikes that woman although he has never met her.

• Counter-transference—the notion that a therapist can unconsciously transfer a past relationship onto her client.

2. Jean Piaget—developmental psychologist who studied cognition and behavior. He specifically argued that children’s cognitive growth occurs in four stages: sensory motor, preoperational, concrete operations, and formal operations.

http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Image:Piaget_1.jpg

• Sensorimotor stage—the child learns to organize things within his environment through using the five senses. The stage occurs from birth to 2 years of age.

• Preoperational stage—the child begins to understand symbols and uses representative language. However, the child is not able to think logically. This stage happens from ages 2 to 7 years of age.

• Concrete operations stage—the child is able to think logically, but cannot think abstractly. The stage occurs around 7 to 11 years of age.

• Formal operations stage—the child can think abstractly and play with hypothetical scenarios. This stage happens from 11 years of age through adulthood.

3. Erik Erikson—developmental psychologist who theorized that people grow through eight psychosocial stages. In these stages, people have to solve a specific problem. If they solve it, they gain a specific virtue which symbolizes that they have made it to the next psychosocial stage. If not, then the person will remain psychosocially immature.

• Trust vs. mistrust—the infant seeks to know if the world is a safe, good place. If she succeeds in believing that, then she will gain the virtue of hope.

• Autonomy vs. shame and doubt—the 1 to 2 year-old learns how to be independent without feeling ashamed. By doing this, she acquires the virtue of will.

• Initiative vs. guilt—the 3 to 6 year-old faces difficult decisions of whether to take risks and learn new skills, and not to feel guilt in doing so. If she learns those skills, then she will gain the virtue of purpose.

• Industry vs. inferiority—6 to 13 year-old faces the issue of learning valued skills of her culture or feel incompetent. If she does so, she will gain the virtue of skill.

• Identity vs. identity role confusion—the young adolescent must be able to find out who she is. If she does not do so, she will remain confused and take a variety of roles instead of having a stable identity. If she succeeds, then she will gain the virtue of fidelity. This stage can go through early adulthood.

• Intimacy vs. isolation—the young adult faces the issues of primarily valuing the self (or having self-love) versus loving and committing to others. If she succeeds in committing to others, then she will gain the virtue of love.

• Generativity vs. isolation—the middle-aged adult confronts the choice to help future generations or feel worthless. If she succeeds, then she will gain the virtue of care.

• Integrity vs. despair—the elderly adult faces fears about death. If she accepts death, then she will gain the virtue of wisdom.

4. Carl Jung—psychiatrist who founded analytic psychology and created the idea of the psychological archetype (an unconscious disposition of a person). For instance, an individual probably possesses a shadow archetype (having traits that the person consciously denies, but actually contains).

5. Carl Rogers—clinical psychologist who introduced client-centered therapy. He hypothesized that people were inherently good and needed to actualize (develop their capacities in ways that would promote growth and well-being). One way of helping a person actualize, he asserted, was to not place conditions of worth on the person and give unconditional positive regard.

6. B.F. Skinner—behavioral psychologist who theorized that behavior reinforcers (e.g. giving a child a cookie for not talking during church) drive all behavior. (Picture is of a "Skinner-Rat.")  

7. Lawrence Kohlberg—American psychologist who is most famous for creating levels of moral reasoning.

• Preconventional morality—the notion that a person only cares about rewards and punishment. Kohlberg suggested that the kids aged 4 to 10 would have this sort of moral reasoning.

• Conventional morality—the idea that a person only cares about pleasing authority figures and thinks about their moral standards—not her own. Most people have this type of moral reasoning after age 10 and generally do not move to the last moral reasoning stage.

• Postconventional morality—person has internal standards of morality regarding justice, fairness, and right. They recognize the conflicts and paradoxes of moral principles. This type of moral reasoning rarely occurs.  

8. Jonathon Haidt—social psychologist who grouped morality into five foundations: harm/care, justice, sacredness, authority, and fairness. He found that politically conservative people were more likely to value all five dimensions of morality, while liberals particularly emphasized harm/care and justice.

9. Viktor Frankl—existential psychiatrist/psychologist who created logotherapy—a therapy which seeks to help the client find meaning in life. Frankl asserted that if a person found meaning in life, the neurosis would disappear. One of his most famous examples of this is in his work Man’s Search for Meaning. A depressed, bereaved man comes into his office, telling Frankel that he does not wish to live since his wife passed away. Frankl asks him, “Do you think she would have been alright if she survived you?” To which the man responds, “No, I think she would have been devastated.” At this, Frankl tells the man that he is taking the burden for his dead wife, in being the one to live longer. The man suddenly then does not feel depressed. Frankl suggests that this was because the man was able to find meaning in his suffering; he was suffering for his wife. As a result, Frankl contends that the man does not feel the same severe depression symptoms.

10. Stanley Milgram—social psychologist who is famous for his study on submission and authority. He found that most subjects in his experiment were likely to administer electrical shocks to supposedly to another person who groaned in pain or spoke of a heart condition. Milgram concluded that people are more likely to submit to a legitimate authority figure, even when the authority figure’s judgment seemed questionable and immoral.

11. Philip Zimbardo—social psychologist who conducted the Stanford Prison Study. In this disturbing experiment, subjects were assigned to act as a prisoner or a guard. After six days of reenacting a prison, the study had to be shut down because the situation had gotten out of hand: several prisoners suffered emotional breakdowns due to several of the prison guards’ sadistic acts. The horrors that American soldiers committed at the Abu Ghraib prison have been compared to observations from this study. 

->http://info.mymovies.ge/movie/1991/Stanford+Prison+Experiment%253A+Psychology+of+Imprisonment)

12. Robert Hare—criminal psychologist who created the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. Individuals who score high on Factor 1 traits (e.g. selfishness and lack of remorse for acts) and Factor 2 traits (anti-social tendencies and instability) he classified as having the psychopathic personality. The psychology community found that such individuals were more likely to repeat offenses and had high recidivism rates.

• Psychopathy—the condition of lacking empathy for others, while being apt to enjoy antisocial acts, particularly risky antisocial acts.