Lev Vygotsky (He was in the Development Unit too)
Language is a social concept that is developed through social interactions. According to Lev Vygotsky, a 20th-century Soviet psychologist,language acquisition involves not only a child's exposure to words but also an interdependent process of growth between thought and language. This is part of his Social Learning Theory
B. F. Skinner (He was in the Learning Unit too)
He is the father of Operant Conditioning and believes both animals and humans only illicit and learn behaviors due to reinforcements or punishments. In regard to language acquisition, he believes humans learn language based on if we are rewarded/praised or punished for things we say. For example, when a toddler starts saying words like "mama" or "ball," we tell them good job and hug them. Therefore, they learn to keep using that word because of the reinforcement they receive.
Noam Chomsky
He disagreed with Skinner and said there is no way language acquisition is solely based on reinforcements and punishments because we learn language much too fast. There are SO many possible sentences to be constructed that we can't be reinforced or punished for all of them. He believes we all are born with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) in our brains which means we are pre-programmed to learn and use language.
Benjamin Whorf
He created the idea of "linguistic determinism." This means he believes that language determines the way we think. Linguistic determinism is also known as the "linguistic relativity hypothesis." It was based partially on the realization that the the Hopi Indian tribe in North America had very few words in their language for past tense, and never ever thought about the past.
Aaron Beck
Beck is considered the father of Cognitive Therapy and the cognitive triad. He proposed that during childhood and adolescence some people undergo wrenching experiences such as the loss of a parent, severe difficulties in gaining parental or social approval, or humiliating criticism from teachers or other adults. Through his research is created the Beck Scales- depression inventory, hopelessness scale, suicidal ideation, anxiety inventory, and youth inventories. (We learned about him during out Abnormal Disorders and Therapy Unit)
Albert Ellis
Ellis was a Cognitive psychologist who created RET or Rational-Emotive Therapy. RET focuses on altering client's patterns of irrational thinking to reduce maladaptive behavior or emotions. (We learned about him during out Abnormal Disorders and Therapy Unit)