Kendler was born on June 9, 1919, in New York City, New York. He studied
psychology at
Brooklyn College, where he worked as an assistant to
Abraham Maslow and conducted a project on thinking under the supervision of
Solomon Asch. During this time, Kendler became interested in
Gestalt psychology, which prompted him to enroll at the
University of Iowa in the hopes of working with
Kurt Lewin. However, Kendler later changed his mind and chose to work with
Kenneth Spence, under whose supervision Kendler received his
Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1943. ==Academic career==