Born in Cliftondale, Massachusetts, Marston received his B.A. from Harvard University in 1915, his L.L.B. from Harvard in 1918, and Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard in 1921. After teaching at American University in Washington D.C., Marston traveled to Universal Studios in California in 1929, where he spent a year as Director of Public Services.

Credited with inventing an early form of the "lie detector" (specifically the notion of testing systolic blood pressure to detect deception, which became one component of the polygraph), Marston was also a writer of essays in popular psychology.

In 1928 he published his book "Emotions of Normal People" which became a classic for the DISC-Theory later developed further by John G. Geier. He viewed people behaving along two axis with their attention being either passive or active, depending on the individual's perception of his or her environment as either favourable or antagonistic. By placing the axis at right angles, four quadrants form with each describing a behavioral pattern:

Dominance produces activity in an antagonistic environment
Inducement produces activity in a favourable environment
Steadiness produces passivity in a favourable environment
Compliance produces passivity in an antagonistic environment.

His best known theory was that there is a male notion of freedom that is inherently anarchic and violent, and an opposing female notion based on "Love Allure" which leads to an ideal state of submission to loving authority. His concerns about the effects of gender stereotyping in popular culture were expressed in a 1944 article published in "The American Scholar":

"Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power... The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.

Elizabeth (Sadie) Holloway Marston (1893-1993), who lived to be 100 years old, was trained as a lawyer (a rare feat at the time) and was the co-creator of the comic book character, Wonder Woman.

Elizabeth received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in 1915, L.L.B from the Law School at Boston University in 1918, and M.A. in psychology from Radcliffe College in 1921.