Paper Trails of Psychology - the Words That Made Applied Behavioral-sciences

Scientific texts may be used to reconstruct the history of a discipline. The purpose of the present study is to analyze the words that have ''made'' applied behavioral science. Previous research has shown that the words used in the titles of articles of experimental psychology over this century are becoming increasingly abstract. In contrast, the words of titles of applied social science articles are becoming increasingly concrete. A line of demarcation between the two disciplines needs to be established We therefore analyzed the titles of all the articles of Journal of Applied Psychology (1917-1994) and Harvard Business Review (1923-1994) for the presence of abstract words. The latter are increasing in Journal of Applied Psychology but decreasing in Harvard Business Review. In both journals, the presence of ever more negatively toned words over time contradicts the a priori optimism of every science. The thematic concerns of Journal of Applied Psychology resemble those of sisterly scientific disciplines while the concerns of Harvard Business Review resemble chose of the society in which science is anchored. In particular, this study raises the need to further confirm the disintegration of symbolic thought (i.e., the use of abstract words in science) in those fields where we have identified it, in view of the prominent role of this mode of thought in the formation of elites.