Module 1: Important and Influential Figures in the Field of Psychology

The Field of Psychology
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Alfred Binet
Binet is considered as one of the most significant figures in the field of psychology and in spite of the fact that his operations were based in France; their implication has created a total change in this field. While working in association with the French Educational concerns, Binet was able to come up with several ideas especially in the area of intelligence amongst the children in school (Russell, 2008). The discovery which is perhaps considered as his biggest contribution in the field of philosophy comes in the form of a series of tests which he designed to be employed in measuring the intelligence of children and hence everybody else. His first intentions were to come up with a formula through which the mental age of children could be obtained.
He wanted to find out if it could be possible to determine the mental age of the children in schools. According to Binet’s definition, the term mental age was the current ability of a child as compared to those of others at the same age. This test happened to be the earliest technique or formula designed to measure the level of intelligence of a person (Parke, 2008). Even though the significance of this finding became more useful after his death in the year 1914, it was modified through a series of two revisions to become the present day IQ test for measuring intelligence.
B.F. Skinner
B.F. Skinner is also a well known and a reputable psychologist in spite of the fact that his original ambition was to become a writer. The main area of interest for this scholar was behavioral psychology and he is popularly known as one of the most famous behaviorists of all time. While working as a behaviorist, Skinner was able to come up with several contributions into this field which would soon become very significant in the entire field of psychology (Lilienfeld, Lynn, Ruscio & Beyerstein, 2011). One reason for which the scholar is recognized as a significant contributing figure in this field is his design of the operant theory conditioning through which he tried to provide a scholarly definition to the term behavior and provide logical reasoning of how this concept could be controlled.
According to this definition, the behavior of a person is shaped by the consequences that come with such a behavior. The consequences according to Skinner’s reasoning can either be enforcements or punishments and are responsible for the determination of whether or not the behavior is likely to re-occur ((Lilienfeld, Lynn, Ruscio & Beyerstein, 2011). He also went ahead and defined learning as the changes that occur due to a person response to the environmental stimuli with which he or she come into contact on a daily basis.
Carl Jung
Carl Jung, just like the rest of the psychologists has made several contributions in the field of psychology through his series of ideas and inventions. Apart from the addition of new ideas into the concepts already developed by other scholars, Jung participated actively as a critic to some of the ideas with which he never agreed (Langley, 2012). For instance, his ideas have brought a great deal of change in the theory of libido which was originally proposed by Freud. ...