Aaron Temkin Beck was born in 1921 in Providence, Rhode Island. His parents were Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine. Aaron’s father was a printer, while his mother’s parents ran a successful tobacco wholesale business. The Beck family was prominent within the Providence Jewish community. Beck received his bachelor’s degree magna […]
Adrian Frank Furnham was born in 1953 in Port Shepstone, Union of South Africa, in the province of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). Port Shepstone is a major South African Indian Ocean port about 70 miles south of Durban. Furnham’s father was a newspaper owner, while his mother was a nurse. Furnham […]
Bernard Morris Bass was born in 1925 in the Bronx in New York City. Bass attended City College of New York between 1941 and 1943, during the early years of America’s participation in World War II. When he turned 18, in 1943, he left college to join the US military. […]
Daniel Goleman was born in 1946 in Stockton, California, into a Jewish family. His parents were both college professors. Goleman received his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in 1968 from Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. While at the school, he took part in its Independent Scholar program, through which he […]
David C. Funder was born in 1953 in Long Beach, California, but grew up in Sacramento. Funder’s father was a civil servant with the state of California; the family lived in modest financial circumstances. Upon graduating from high school, Funder first entered a local, two-year community college, transferring to Sacramento […]
David Watson was born around 1953. Watson obtained his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in psychology in 1975 from Santa Clara University, a Jesuit liberal arts college located in Santa Clara, California, adjacent to San Jose in Silicon Valley. Founded in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest institution of […]
Edwin A. Locke was born in 1938. He grew up in New York City. For high school, Locke attended Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, graduating in 1956. Locke then entered Harvard College for his undergraduate education, obtaining his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1960. For his graduate work, […]
Frank Leo Schmidt was born in 1944 in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised on a farm in a small nearby community. In college, Schmidt initially studied biology at Bellarmine College (now Bellarmine University) in Louisville, Kentucky. After two years, he switched his major to psychology, receiving his bachelor’s degree in that […]
Fred Edward Fiedler was born in 1922 into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria. His father, who was originally from Prague, ran several small businesses, notably, a wholesale clothing store. When he was not yet 16 years old, Fiedler left home, mainly due to his being persecuted by his schoolmates […]
Frederick Irving Herzberg was born in 1923 into a Jewish family in Lynn, Massachusetts, a northern suburb of Boston, but was raised in New York City. Herzberg’s parents had immigrated to the US from Lithuania. In America, his father supported the family as a housepainter. In 1939, Herzberg enrolled in […]
Hans Jürgen Eysenck was born in 1916 in Berlin, Germany. His father was a nightclub entertainer and actor, while his mother was a film star. His mother’s mother, who was Jewish, perished in the Holocaust. After graduating from high school in 1934, Eysenck traveled to England to attend University College, […]
John D. Mayer was born in 1953. Mayer received his bachelor’s degree, with a double major in literature/creative writing and drama, in 1975 from the University of Michigan. After graduating from college, Mayer spent two years away from academia. He then entered graduate school in psychology in 1977 at Case […]
John Gunder Gunderson was born in 1942 in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, a town on Lake Michigan about 50 miles south of Green Bay. Gunderson earned his bachelor’s degree in 1963 from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Gunderson then received a Master’s of Biomedical Sciences (MBS) degree in 1965 from […]
Marsha Marie Linehan was born in 1943 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Linehan earned her bachelor’s degree cum laude in psychology in 1968 from Loyola University Chicago, Illinois. She went on to obtain her master’s degree in 1970 and her PhD in in 1971, both in psychology with a specialization in social […]
Michael Frese was born in 1949 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Frese received his Vorplom (bachelor’s degree equivalent) in 1971 from Universität Regensburg [University of Regensburg], his Diploma (master’s degree equivalent) in 1976 from Freie Universität Berlin [Free University of Berlin], and his Doctorate (PhD equivalent) summa cum laude in 1978 from […]
Michael G. Aamodt was born in 1957 in Salt Lake City, Utah. His father’s family originally hailed from Norway. Aamodt received his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1978 from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Aamodt then pursued his graduate studies at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, earning his master’s […]
Paul Everett Meehl was born Paul Swedal in 1920 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He later adopted the surname of his stepfather. Meehl’s mother died when he was 16. He has stated that as a result of her death he became disillusioned with medical practice. For college, Meehl attended the nearby University […]
Raymond Bernard Cattell was born in 1905 in the small town of Hill Top, not far from Birmingham, England, in the British midlands. Cattell’s father was an inventor who worked on designing new machine parts, notably for automobile engines. When he was five years old, Cattell’s family moved to Torquay […]
Robert A. Emmons was born in 1958. Emmons received his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1980 from the University of Southern Maine in Portland. He obtained his master’s degree in personality psychology in 1984 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his PhD in 1986 from the same institution […]
Robert F. Krueger was born in 1970 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He was raised in the Milwaukee suburb of Greendale. Krueger received his bachelor’s degree, with honors, in psychology in 1991 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Krueger then earned his master’s degree (1993) and his PhD (1996) in […]
Robert R. McCrae was born in 1949 in the town of Maryville in the northwest corner of Missouri. For his undergraduate education, in 1967 McCrae entered Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, where he majored in philosophy, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1971. For graduate school, McCrae moved to […]
Sonja Lyubomirsky (née Sonya Lyubomirskaya) was born in 1966 in Moscow, USSR (now Russia). In 1975, at the age of nine, she moved with her family to the United States. The Lyubomirsky family initially settled in Brookline, Massachusetts, and later moved to Bethesda, Maryland, where the future psychologist attended high […]
Stanley Milgram was born in 1933 in the Bronx in New York City. His family later moved to Queens. Milgram’s father was born in Hungary and his mother in Romania. Both of his parents were Jewish. In America, the senior Milgram worked as a baker to support the family.Milh Milgram […]
Steven W.J. Kozlowski was born in 1952 in Rhode Island. Kozlowski attended college the University of Rhode Island at Kingston, where he majored in psychology. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in 1976. For graduate school, Kozlowski went to Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) at University Park, where he earned his […]
Theodore Millon was born in 1928 in the Brooklyn section of New York City. His family was Jewish, his father having immigrated to the US from Lithuania and his mother from Poland. Millon’s father was a tailor by profession. Millon attended college at the City College of New York (CUNY), […]
Walter Mischel was born in 1930 in Vienna, Austria, into a Jewish family. His father was a businessman. His brother, Theodore, was to become a professional philosopher. Following the Anschlüss in 1938, the family emigrated to the United States, settling in Brooklyn, in New York City. There, the family opened […]
