Which Psychologists Prominent in the Second Half of This Century Made Lasting Contributions to Psychological Theory?

Abstract

The autobiographies in the last five volumes of A History of Psychology in Autobiography, Volumes IV to VIII, published between the years 1952 and 1989, represent psychologists sufficiently along in their careers to have been selected by committees of their peers to be invited to prepare their autobiographies. They all had met some criteria of eminence. With the autobiographies available, and additional information about the writers, since most continued active beyond the time the autobiographies were written, an effort has been made to specify the enduring contributions of a few of these psychologists, chosen somewhat arbitrarily to represent a limited number of specialty areas. In spite of its limitations, this review points up the value of autobiographies as sources of information about the development of scientific ideas that can supplement the more formal presentations in technical books and articles.