Authorities and Subject Matter Areas Emphasized in the Annual Review of Psychology, 1950–1974

Abstract

The Annual Review of Psychology provides an important resource for the historian concerned with post-World War II American psychology. Published since 1950, the series offers summaries and evaluations by knowledgeable psychologists of developments within major areas of the discipline. The present study, based on author indices and tables of contents, indicates that the most frequently cited individuals were R. B. Cattell and British psychologist H. J. Eysenck, both prominent and prolific factor-analytic personality theorists and psychometricians; along with Hullian learning theorists; and a variety of individuals who made notable theoretical or empirical contributions, e.g., Harlow, J. J. Gibson, Festinger, Olds, Simon, Hebb, Rogers, and Skinner. Understandably, psychologists whose work was relevant for many years to a variety of consistently reviewed subject-matter areas tended to have the highest cumulative citation frequencies. Interestingly, the subject-matter area most extensively reviewed across the 25-year period examined was sensation-perception followed by areas within which factor-analytic or Hullian research had some relevance. The study also provides a breakdown of individuals frequently cited during the 1950–55, 1956–65, and 1966–74 subperiods, and an index of new developments as represented by changes in the tables of contents of the 25 volumes analyzed.