Psychology is a discipline in continuous renewal and its fields of study are practically endless. Taking this into account, it is normal that they are being published every day new articles and research about the human psyche, our behavioral patterns and the biological foundations on which they are anchored.
That is why today the names of psychology professionals that appear most in the media and in scientific publications are very different from those that appeared twenty, thirty or forty years ago, and possibly they are not the same ones either. classic authors (which we echoed in the article “The 10 most important psychologists in history”) that are talked about in psychology faculties.
If you think your knowledge about the main personalities in psychology is a little rusty, this list of the most influential psychologists It will be good for you to catch up.
Below we offer you a list of the references of current Psychology.
1. Steven Pinker
One of the greatest current exponents of evolutionary psychology Pinker has talked about the way our genetics predispose us toward certain behaviors with high adaptive value, and he has also proposed the idea that language is a product of the evolution of our species carved by natural selection.
This psychologist is known for his study of the connections between emotional states and the facial expressions they trigger. In fact, his work has inspired a work of fiction starring Tim Roth TV series Lie to Me.
3. Philip Zimbardo
Zimbardo is known for having conducted the famous Stanford prison experiment. Since then Zimbardo has been president of the American Psychological Association and has written and given lectures about the role of context in the moral conduct of human beings, for which he uses the study of cases such as the Stanford experiment and the torture cases of Abu Ghraib .
4. Vilayanur S. Ramachandran
Ramachandran is known for his research on the phantom limb and for having invented the mirror box, a simple device that serves to relieve the pain associated with this phenomenon.
5. Elizabeth Loftus
Elizabeth Loftus has led successful research on the human memory, especially with respect to the degree to which the judgment of witnesses can be relied upon in a trial. He has provided evidence about how lived experiences alter memories that may seem perfectly reliable.
6. Daniel Kahneman
This researcher of Israeli origin is one of the few psychologists to be awarded a Nobel Prize: specifically, that of Economic Sciences. He is specialized in behavioral economics and has found numerous evidence about how the decisions we make in our daily lives are guided more by irrational thinking and heuristics than by perfectly logical and rational ways of thinking.
7. Gordon H. Bower
Bower has investigated the relationship between memory and emotions He has provided evidence on how different emotional states influence the way we remember things, as explained in this article.
Bandura has been one of the great references of psychology for decades and is currently one of the living psychologists most referenced in books and magazine articles. His Social Learning Theory and Self-Efficacy are two of his best-known theoretical constructs.
9. Dan Ariely
Dan Ariely has focused his work on decision making, deception and self-deception strategies and irrational styles of thinking. He is also a successful author of books in which he explains his way of understanding human behavior and the morality that underlies it. By the way, we have previously recommended one of his books in this list of interesting readings related to psychology.
10. Walter Mischel
Mischel has been one of the main references in the field of personality theory. He has emphasized the need to study both the variables related to personality and the motivations born from the interaction with the context in order to predict the behavior of individuals with more or less reliability.
11. Barbara Fredrickson
Barbara Fredrickson specializes in research on positive psychology and how positive emotions influence behavior in certain patterns.
12. Richard Wiseman
Wiseman originally began dedicating himself to the world of magic tricks and later moved on to the study of psychology and obtained a doctorate in this discipline. He is currently a successful writer with several best sellers behind him, such as rarology either The Luck Factor. Furthermore, as a former magician, part of his publications focus on the processes by which it is easy for mediums and psychics to deceive people easily. As a curiosity, he is the psychologist with the most followers on Twitter.
