Psychologists and their Achievements Quiz

Answer: Ivan Pavlov

Russian Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) was a village priest before he decided to leave the priesthood and dedicate himself to science. He was fascinated with physiology and in 1890 he was made head of the Department of Physiology in the Institute of Experimental Medicine.

He conducted various experiments with dogs and came to the conclusion that the dogs reacted to the expectation of being fed.

Answer: Sigmund Freud

Austrian Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is considered the father of psychoanalysis. He put forward various theories such as psychic energy, Oedipus complex and attached importance to the interpretation of dreams. He also put forward his idea that personality has three distinct parts - the id, the ego and the superego.

Answer: Carl Jung

Swiss Carl Jung (1875-1961) was initially a follower of Freud's theories but later disagreed that sexuality was the cause of neurosis. He categorised people as being extrovert or introvert and was of the opinion that the main driving force for people was coming to terms with death.

Answer: Melanie Klein

Austrian-born Melanie Klein (1882-1960) concentrated on analysing children from the way they acted when playing. The child to be analysed was placed in a play room and had many toys and materials to play with. This gave the child the necessary tools to show its imagination and inner feelings.

Answer: Karen Horney

German-born Karen Horney (1885-1952) researched the sexual development of women. Horney is sometimes referred to as the 'Founder of Feminist Psychology'.

Answer: Jean Piaget

Swiss Jean Piaget (1896-1980) researched the cognitive development of children. He observed that the quality of answers varied with the age of the child. The children knew the answers equally well but the way they expressed them showed that their thought patterns were different.

He argued that the development went through different stages and the child at each stage things differently from the child at another stage.

Answer: Solomon Asch

Polish Solomon Asch (1907-1996) conducted experiments that showed that people in the minority conformed to pressure by the majority. In the experiment one participant was in a room with seven people who were instructed before hand to give a wrong answer to a comparison test.

The participant was always last to answer and the experiments showed that in one third of the cases the participant was swayed be the previous answer although it was obviously wrong.

Answer: Stanley Milgram

American Stanley Milgram (1933-1984) carried out a study in obedience. The study concentrated on the on the internal conflict between a person's moral view and conformity to authority. The results showed that people would follow orders to the point that they could kill another person.

Answer: Phillip Zimbardo

American Philip Zimbardo was born in 1933 in New York. Zimbardo conducted his study in 1971. People were randomly selected to play either the role guard or prisoner. The prisoners were made to wear striped suits and were chained and the guards were given sunglasses to wear and carried sticks.

The study was terminated after the sixth day because things got out of hand. The people that played the role of guard, having the air of authority, became extremely sadistic.

Answer: Erik Erikson

German born Eric Erikson (1902-1994) put forward a theory about psychosocial development in human beings. He stated that there were eight psychosocial crisis stages in the development of a human being. The first stage is called "Trust v Mistrust" and it is the relationship between infant and his mother and the last stage is called "Integrity v Despair" where the late adult human being examines the meaning and purpose of life and achievements attained during the life time.