Edwin D. Lawson

Edwin D. Lawson is a personality and social psychologist who worked on the semantic differential developed by Charles Osgood at the University of Illinois. Almost by accident, he used first names to test the possible expansion of the semantic differential from use with a single individual to use with a group. The successful results led to many aspects of the study of personal names as well as other concepts. These have included investigations of names in many cultures. One additional major development has been the demonstration of the pronunciation of names using native speakers. Among the languages included are: Russian, Estonian, and Azeri. He has also published two annotated bibliographies of personal names.