Nominator's statement

For more information on Brunswik and current work in the Brunswikian tradition, see the Brunswik Society web site at www.brunswik.org or email info@brunswik.org.

comments

• In one man's opinion The Conceptual Framework of Psychology is the great point of departure for 20th century psychology. Egon Brunswik remarkable contributions suggest that he is a Titan of modern, relevant, non-anancronistic psychology.

• Egon Brunswik (1903 - 1955, University of California at Berkeley) redefined the fundamental task of psychology (focus on distal / distal relations) based on thorough study of the history of psychology as a science, came up with a basic theoretical framework (the lens model and probabilistic functionalism) and original methodology of psychological research (representative design of experiments). His papers on perception introducing the concept of ecological validity of perceptual cues) predated the coming of "ecological psychology". Built on his ideas the social judgment theory and cognitive continuum theory of Kenneth R. Hammond University of Colorado) and a others inspired a broad scope of research on perception, cognitive conflict resolution, decision making, policy formation and analysis which blooms on international scale today. Thousands of empirical studies, techniques using computer assisted counselling were developed since the beginning.

• Brunswik's work is vastly under appreciated. His challenges to the field of psychology were way before his time. The topics he raised are becomming more and more prominent within the field of psychology. I believe this foresight warrants inclusion on this list.

• The power of Brunswik's ideas are apparent by the substantial influence that they exert today, almost 50 years after his untimely death, in stark contrast to his detractors of the time, whose influence have largely waned.

• This book MUST be included in this list! It shook Psychology to its core and forced us to critically question what it is we do. It took a 'total discipline' perspective and integrated theoretical and methodological concerns.