The 12 most influential psychologists of today

The psychology It is a discipline in continuous renewal and its fields of study are practically endless. Taking this into account, it is normal that every day they are being published new articles and research about the human psyche, our behavior patterns and the biological foundations on which they are anchored.

That is why today the names of psychology professionals that appear the most in the media and in scientific publications are very different from those that appeared twenty, thirty or forty years ago, and possibly neither are the classical authors (of which we echoed in the article "The 10 most important psychologists in history") of which is spoken in the faculties of psychology.

If you think that your knowledge about the main personalities in psychology is a bit rusty, this list with the most influential psychologists It will be good for you to catch up.

12 references of current Psychology

Below we offer you a list with the references of current Psychology.

1. Steven Pinker

One of the greatest current exponents of the

evolutionary psychology. Pinker has talked about the way our genetics predispose us towards certain behaviors with a high adaptive value, and has also proposed the idea that language is a product of the evolution of our species carved by natural selection.

2. Paul Ekman

This psychologist is known for his study of the connections between emotional states and facial expressions that they unleash. 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 directed the famous Stanford prison experiment. Since then Zimbardo has been president of the American Psychological Association and has written and lectured on the role of context in the moral behavior of beings human beings, for which he uses the study of cases such as the Stanford experiment and the cases of torture 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 alleviate the pain associated with this phenomenon.

5. Elizabeth loftus

Elizabeth Loftus has conducted successful research on the human memoryespecially with regard to the degree to which witness judgment can be relied upon in a trial. He has provided evidence on how life experiences alter memories that may seem perfectly reliable.

6. Daniel kahneman

This researcher of Israeli origin is one of the few psychologists awarded a Nobel Prize: specifically, that of Economic Sciences. He is specialized in behavioral economics and has found numerous evidences about how the decisions we make in our day to day 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.

8. Albert bandura

Bandura has been one of the great references in psychology for decades and is currently one of the most referenced living psychologists in books and magazine articles. His Social Learning Theory and the Self-efficacy are two of the best known theoretical constructs of him.

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 understanding of human behavior and the morality that underlies it. By the way, previously we have recommended one of his books in this listing 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 of the interaction with the context to be able to predict with more or less reliability the behavior of the individuals.

11. Barbara fredrickson

Barbara Fredrickson specializes in research on positive psychology and how positive emotions influence behavior following certain patterns.

12. Richard Wiseman

Wiseman originally started dedicating himself to the world of magic tricks to later go on to the study of psychology and obtain a doctorate in this discipline. She is currently a successful writer with several best sellers behind her back, such as Rarology or The Luck Factor. Also, as a former magician, some of his posts focus on the processes by which it is easy for mediums and psychics to easily fool people. As a curiosity, he is the psychologist with the most followers on Twitter.