William Moulton Marston

William Moulton Marston (1893 to 1947) was an American psychologist, self-help author and comic book writer who also wrote under the pen name Charles Moulton. Born in Saugus, Massachusetts, he took a bachelor of arts in 1915, a law degree in 1918 and a doctorate in psychology in 1921, all at Harvard University. With his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston he invented an early prototype of the polygraph, and he created the systolic blood pressure test that became one component of the modern polygraph invented by John Augustus Larson. In Emotions of Normal People (1928) he set out DISC theory, in which people behave along two axes of passive or active attention, depending on whether they see their environment as favorable or antagonistic, producing dominance, inducement, submission and compliance. His popular psychology is described as pseudoscientific and drew almost no attention from academics. He later created the comic book character Wonder Woman, influenced by his wife and by Olive Byrne, and was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.