The Creator of Wonder Woman

While some of the early figures in psychology have been often sung in one way or another, William Moulton Marston (1893-1947) remains somewhat of an odd one, being a lawyer, psychologist, inventor, and comic book writer. He finished at Harvard University with a B.A., a LL.B., and a Ph.D. (1921)

He is primarily known for three things: 

1) He developed a measure of systolic blood pressure as a measure of emotionality. This was one of the components of what became the old lie detector test.

3) He wrote Emotions of Normal People, which elaborated a theory based on two axes of behavior, with peoples' responses being either active or passive, depending on a perception of the environment being favorable or antagonistic. By placing the axes of these two dimensions at right angles to each other, four quadrants form with each describing a behavior pattern:
 
a) Dominance resulting in activity if the environment is antagonistic
b) Inducement resulting in activity if the environment is favorable
c) Submission resulting in passivity if the environment is favorable
d) Compliance resulting in passivity if the environment is antagonistic 

3) Seeing a need for a cartoon exemplar for girls, he developed the comic Wonder Woman. He gave his rationale in The American Scholar: "Not even girls want to be girls as long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power."

So he created the character Wonder Woman, also known as Diana Prince, (an Amazon princess): a beautiful woman who was powerful, forceful, and got things done.  She had an invisible plane and the Lasso of Truth! And she kicked butt!

However, little is known about Wonder Woman's personal life. This is ripe territory for the gossip magazines!