Scientometric trend analyses of publications on the history of psychology: Is psychology becoming an unhistorical science?

AbstractExamines scientometrically the trends in and the recent situation of research on and the teaching of the history of psychology in the German-speaking countries and compares the findings with the situation in other countries (mainly the United States) by means of the psychology databases PSYNDEX and PsycINFO. Declines of publications on the history of psychology are described scientometrically for both research communities since the 1990s. Some impulses are suggested for the future of research on and the teaching of the history of psychology. These include (1) the necessity and significance of an intensified use of quantitative, unobtrusive scientometric methods in historiography in times of digital “big data”, (2) the necessity and possibilities to integrate qualitative and quantitative methodologies in historical research and teaching, (3) the reasonableness of interdisciplinary cooperation of specialist historians, scientometricians, and psychologists, (4) the meaningfulness and necessity to explore, investigate, and teach more intensively the past and the problem history of psychology as well as the understanding of the subject matter of psychology in its historical development in cultural contexts. The outlook on the future of such a more up-to-date research on and teaching of the history of psychology is—with some caution—positive.

[1]  R. Tweney,et al.  The scientific status of American psychology in 1900. , 2000, The American psychologist.

[2]  Wilhelm Windelband,et al.  History and Natural Science , 1980 .

[3]  J. Arnett,et al.  The neglected 95%, a challenge to psychology's philosophy of science. , 2009 .

[4]  M. Pettit,et al.  Can the history of psychology have an impact? , 2014 .

[5]  Dean Keith Simonton,et al.  Historiometric Studies of Genius , 2014 .

[6]  Dieter Baacke,et al.  Bericht der Kommission , 1988 .

[7]  Gabriel Schui.  ZPID‐Monitor 2016 zur Internationalität der Psychologie aus dem deutschsprachigen Bereich , 2018 .

[8]  Russell T. Hurlburt,et al.  Münsterberg in 1898, Not Allport in 1937, Introduced the Terms ‘Idiographic’ and ‘Nomothetic’ to American Psychology , 2006 .

[9]  J. Arnett.  The neglected 95%: why American psychology needs to become less American. , 2008, The American psychologist.

[10]  Lisa Gallagher Tuleya.  Thesaurus of psychological index terms , 2007 .

[11]  Lisa Gallagher Tuleya.  Thesaurus of psychological index terms, 11th ed. , 2007 .

[12]  K. Bühler,et al.  Die Krise der Psychologie. , 1926 .

[13]  Laurence D. Smith,et al.  Bringing history to life: simulating landmark experiments in psychology. , 2006, History of psychology.

[14]  L. Stern,et al.  Über Psychologie der individuellen Differenzen (Ideen zu einer "Differentiellen Psychologie") , 1901 .

[15]  Ingo Feinerer,et al.  Beyond the schools of psychology 2: a digital analysis of psychological review, 1904-1923. , 2014, Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences.

[16]  Markus Bühner,et al.  Bericht der Kommission „Studium und Lehre” der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychologie , 2014 .

[17]  Ludwig Jakob Pongratz,et al.  Psychologie in Selbstdarstellungen , 1972 .

[18]  T. Kuhn.  The structure of scientific revolutions, 3rd ed. , 1996 .

[19]  D. Campbell,et al.  Unobtrusive Measures: Nonreactive Research in the Social Sciences , 1966 .

[20]  Ingo Feinerer,et al.  Searching for the structure of early American psychology: Networking Psychological Review, 1894-1908. , 2015, History of psychology.

[21]  Kurt Danziger,et al.  Neither Science nor History , 1995 .

[22]  Alexander von Eye,et al.  Forecasting trends of development of psychology from a bibliometric perspective , 2011, Scientometrics.

[23]  Gregory J. Feist,et al.  Handbook of the psychology of science , 2013 .

[24]  Wolfgang Prinz,et al.  Memorandum zur Lage und zur Zukunft des Faches Geschichte der Psychologie , 2015 .

[25]  H. Hollingworth.  Personality a psychological interpretation. , 1938 .

[26]  F. Gobet,et al.  The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance , 2006 .

[27]  T. Kuhn,et al.  The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. , 1964 .

[28]  René Cordero-Cordero,et al.  On The Last Decade , 2013, Palliative and Supportive Care.

[29]  F. Gobet.  The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance , 2006 .

[30]  Carl Friedrich Graumann.  Psychologie im Nationalsozialismus , 1985 .

[31]  魏屹东,et al.  Scientometrics , 2018, Encyclopedia of Big Data.

[32]  Gerd Jüttemann.  Die Seele : ihre Geschichte im Abendland , 1991 .

[33]  Dean Keith Simonton,et al.  The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance: Historiometric Methods , 2006 .

[34]  Andrew Keen,et al.  The Internet Is Not the Answer , 2001 .

[35]  Redaktion.  Was wir wollen! , 1858, Monatschrift für das Forst- und Jagdwesen.

[36]  U. Wolfradt,et al.  Deutschsprachige Psychologinnen und Psychologen 1933–1945 , 2015 .

[37]  Laura C. Ball.  Genius without the “Great Man”:New possibilities for the historian of psychology. , 2012 .

[38]  Carl T. Bergstrom,et al.  The Science of Science , 2018, Science.

[39]  Günter Krampen,et al.  Cross-Sequential Results on Creativity Development in Childhood Within two Different School Systems: Divergent Performances in Luxembourg Versus German Kindergarten and Elementary School Students , 2012 .

[40]  Günter Krampen,et al.  Health psychology: Bibliometrical results on the emergence and rapid consolidation of a new field of research and application , 1998 .

[41]  Günter Krampen.  The evaluation of university departments and their scientists: Some general considerations with reference to exemplary bibliometric publication and citation analyses for a Department of psychology , 2007, Scientometrics.

[42]  Elizabeth Gilbert,et al.  Reproducibility Project: Results (Part of symposium called "The Reproducibility Project: Estimating the Reproducibility of Psychological Science") , 2014 .

[43]  Gabriel Schui,et al.  ZPID-Monitor 2011 zur Internationalität der Psychologie aus dem deutschsprachigen Bereich: Der Kurzbericht , 2014 .

[44]  U. Geuter,et al.  Die Professionalisierung der deutschen Psychologie im Nationalsozialismus , 1990 .

[45]  H. Ebbinghaus.  Abriss der Psychologie , 1908 .

[46]  Ingo Feinerer,et al.  Beyond the schools of psychology 1: a digital analysis of Psychological Review, 1894-1903. , 2013, Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences.

[47]  Gabriel Ruiz,et al.  Historiography of psychology in Spain: the last decade. , 2010, History of psychology.

[48]  Kurt Danziger,et al.  Does the History of Psychology Have a Future? , 1994 .

[49]  Ingo Feinerer,et al.  Searching for the structure of early American psychology: Networking Psychological Review, 1909-1923. , 2015, History of Psychology.

[50]  F. Weinert.  Zur Lage der Psychologie , 1987 .

[51]  Judith Zuquim,et al.  NAMING THE MIND: HOW PSYCHOLOGY FOUND ITS LANGUAGE , 2002 .

[52]  Roxann Roberson-Nay,et al.  Constructing knowledge. The role of graphs and tables in hard and soft psychology. , 2002, The American psychologist.

[53]  W. Wundt.  Völkerpsychologie : eine Untersuchung der Entwicklungsgesetze von Sprache, Mythus und Sitte , 1909 .

[54]  G. Āllport.  Personality: A Psychological Interpretation , 1938 .