David Myers (psychologist)

Life and career

Myers was born in Seattle, Washington, and graduated from Seattle's Queen Anne High School in 1960. He attended Whitworth University, from which he received his B.A. in chemistry, magna cum laude, in 1964, having been a pre-med student. However, his graduate work went in a different direction, that of social psychology. He received his M.A. in social psychology in 1966 and his Ph.D. in social psychology the following year for thesis titled Enhancement of Initial Risk Taking Tendencies in Social Situations, both at the University of Iowa.

Myers has spent most of his career at Hope College, rising from assistant professor (1967), associate professor (1970), and since 1975, full professor. He served as a visiting scholar at the University of Mannheim in Germany in the summer of 1974, and at the University of St Andrews in Scotland in 1985.

Myers has received fellowships and grants from the U.S. Public Health Service and the National Science Foundation and is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society and the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology. He is one of the most important authors of psychology textbooks and is the recipient of honorary doctorates from three different educational institutions. According to the Open Syllabus Project, Myers is the most frequently cited author on college syllabi for psychology courses.