Allen Louis Edwards was born in Houston, Texas on April 15, 1914. He received his license practice psychology in 1937 and a master’s degree in 1938 from the University of Ohio. He then received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Illinois in 1940. In 1941, Edwards began working with UW professor Edwin Guthrie in Washington D.C. for the United States Department of War, focusing work on scientific questions revolving around propaganda and public opinion. Edwards and Edwin Guthrie later collaborated to write Psychology: A First Course in Human Behavior.

After quickly working at the University of Maryland, in 1944 Edwards joined the faculty at the University of Washington. While at UW, Edwards unofficially supported faculty who were entangled in post war anti-American sentiment purges in the period of McCarthyism. He is thought to have changed the methods of modern psychological research and is known for developing the Edwards Personal Preformance Schedule (EPPS) and the Edwards Personality Inventory, personality tests meant to eliminate biases. Edwards also published several important books such as “Experimental Design in Psychological Research” (1950) and many articles.

He continued his work in the Psychology Department until he retired in 1984. For his work, Edwards was named 82 of the 100 most important psychologists of the 20th century. Allen Louis Edwards passed away in Seattle in 1994. With a large donation left by Edwards, the Department of Psychology continues the Allen L. Edwards Endowed Lectureship in Psychology which invites three scholars a year to present in the lecture series.