Field · Psychology
Most cited papers in Psychology
What are the most cited papers in Psychology?
The most cited paper in Psychology is "Using thematic analysis in psychology" (Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke, 2006), with 193,920 citations. Next come "Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4" (89,183) and "The theory of planned behavior" (87,913).
Showing 50 of 99 papers. Every paper with more than 10,321 citations is listed.
| # | Paper | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Using thematic analysis in psychology Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke · Qualitative Research in Psychology | 2006 | 193,920 |
| 2 | Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4 Douglas M. Bates, Martin Mächler, Benjamin M. Bolker et al. · Journal of Statistical Software | 2015 | 89,183 |
| 3 | The theory of planned behavior Icek Ajzen · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes | Dec 1991 | 87,913 |
| 4 | Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Philip M. Podsakoff, SCOTT B. MACKENZIE, Jeong Yeon Lee et al. · Journal of Applied Psychology | 2003 | 80,679 |
| 5 | The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Reuben M. Baron, David A. Kenny · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | 1986 | 72,222 |
| 6 | G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences Franz Faul, Edgar Erdfelder, Albert-Georg Lang et al. · Behavior Research Methods | May 2007 | 66,357 |
| 7 | The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale A. S. Zigmond, R Philip Snaith · Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica | Jun 1983 | 47,341 |
| 8 | The PHQ-9 Kurt Kroenke, Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B. W. Williams · Journal of General Internal Medicine | Sep 2001 | 45,744 |
| 9 | A power primer. Jacob Cohen · Psychological Bulletin | 1992 | 42,833 |
| 10 | Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control Albert Bandura, Wendy Freeman, Richard Lightsey · Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy | 1999 | 40,874 |
| 11 | Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. James C. Anderson, David W. Gerbing · Psychological Bulletin | May 1988 | 40,395 |
| 12 | An Inventory for Measuring Depression Aaron T. Beck · Archives of General Psychiatry | Jun 1961 | 38,441 |
| 13 | Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.). Peter A. Lachenbruch, Jacob Cohen · Journal of the American Statistical Association | Dec 1989 | 37,611 |
| 14 | Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling Rex B. Kline | 27 May 1998 | 36,227 |
| 15 | The Pittsburgh sleep quality index: A new instrument for psychiatric practice and research Daniel J. Buysse, Charles F. Reynolds, T. H. Monk et al. · Psychiatry Research | May 1989 | 35,692 |
| 16 | Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Albert Bandura · Psychological Review | 1977 | 35,570 |
| 17 | Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences Henri Guitton, Sidney Siegel · Revue économique | Jul 1958 | 35,478 |
| 18 | Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models Kristopher J. Preacher, Andrew F. Hayes · Behavior Research Methods | Aug 2008 | 33,880 |
| 19 | The "What" and "Why" of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior Edward L. Deci, Richard M. Ryan · Psychological Inquiry | Oct 2000 | 33,752 |
| 20 | A Global Measure of Perceived Stress Sheldon Cohen, Tom Kamarck, Robin J. Mermelstein · Journal of Health and Social Behavior | Dec 1983 | 33,209 |
| 21 | A RATING SCALE FOR DEPRESSION M. Hamilton · Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry | Feb 1960 | 32,957 |
| 22 | A Brief Measure for Assessing Generalized Anxiety Disorder Robert L. Spitzer, Kurt Kroenke, Janet B. W. Williams et al. · Archives of Internal Medicine | 22 May 2006 | 32,782 |
| 23 | Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. David Watson, Lee A. Clark, Auke Tellegen · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | 1988 | 31,676 |
| 24 | Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. Richard M. Ryan, Edward L. Deci · American Psychologist | 2000 | 27,839 |
| 25 | Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Julian B. Rotter · The Psychological Monographs | 1966 | 22,129 |
| 26 | The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Roy Frederick Baumeister, Mark R. Leary · Psychological Bulletin | May 1995 | 21,989 |
| 27 | The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) for Schizophrenia Stanley R. Kay, Abraham Fiszbein, Lewis A. Opler · Schizophrenia Bulletin | 1987 | 21,651 |
| 28 | Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation Hazel Rose Markus, Shinobu Kitayama · Psychological Review | Apr 1991 | 21,129 |
| 29 | Statistical mechanics of complex networks Réka Albert, Albert-Ĺaszló Barabási · Reviews of Modern Physics | 30 Jan 2002 | 20,746 |
| 30 | Lifetime Prevalence and Age-of-Onset Distributions of DSM-IV Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Ronald C. Kessler, Patricia A. Berglund, Olga Demler et al. · Archives of General Psychiatry | Jun 2005 | 20,746 |
| 31 | How Many Interviews Are Enough? Greg Guest, Arwen Bunce, Laura Johnson · Field Methods | 23 Dec 2005 | 20,652 |
| 32 | The Evolution of Cooperation Robert Axelrod, William D. O. Hamilton · Science | 27 Mar 1981 | 20,368 |
| 33 | Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults Vincent J. Felitti, Robert F. Anda, Dale F. Nordenberg et al. · American Journal of Preventive Medicine | May 1998 | 18,997 |
| 34 | Assessment of Older People: Self-Maintaining and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living M. Powell Lawton, Elaine Brody · The Gerontologist | Sep 1969 | 18,798 |
| 35 | Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions Richard M. Ryan, Edward L. Deci · Contemporary Educational Psychology | 2000 | 18,640 |
| 36 | Characteristics of and Important Lessons From the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in China Zunyou Wu, Jennifer M. McGoogan · JAMA | 24 Feb 2020 | 18,071 |
| 37 | The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. George Miller · Psychological Review | Mar 1956 | 17,806 |
| 38 | Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Sheldon Cohen, Thomas A. Wills · Psychological Bulletin | Sep 1985 | 17,584 |
| 39 | A New Method for Measuring Daytime Sleepiness: The Epworth Sleepiness Scale Murray W. Johns · SLEEP | Nov 1991 | 17,509 |
| 40 | SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models Kristopher J. Preacher, Andrew F. Hayes · Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers | Nov 2004 | 17,445 |
| 41 | The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence Samantha K. Brooks, Rebecca Webster, Louise E. Smith et al. · The Lancet | 26 Feb 2020 | 16,404 |
| 42 | Mastering the game of Go with deep neural networks and tree search David Lawrence Silver, Aja Huang, Chris J. Maddison et al. · Nature | 26 Jan 2016 | 16,121 |
| 43 | The Unity and Diversity of Executive Functions and Their Contributions to Complex “Frontal Lobe” Tasks: A Latent Variable Analysis Akira Miyake, Naomi P. Friedman, Michael J. Emerson et al. · Cognitive Psychology | Aug 2000 | 15,905 |
| 44 | On the Evaluation of Structural Equation Models Richard P. Bagozzi, Youjae Yi · Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science | 1988 | 15,746 |
| 45 | Sources of Method Bias in Social Science Research and Recommendations on How to Control It Philip M. Podsakoff, SCOTT B. MACKENZIE, Nathan Philip Podsakoff · Annual Review of Psychology | Mar 2011 | 15,513 |
| 46 | Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. Albert Bandura · American Psychologist | Feb 1982 | 15,425 |
| 47 | The Analytic Hierarchy Process Thomas L. Saaty, Kevin P. Kearns · Elsevier eBooks | 1985 | 15,416 |
| 48 | Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective Albert Bandura · Annual Review of Psychology | Feb 2001 | 15,325 |
| 49 | Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: A preliminary report Jerome Albert Yesavage, T. L. Brink, Terence L. Rose et al. · Journal of Psychiatric Research | 1982 | 15,217 |
| 50 | The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A Research Note Robert Goodman · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry | Jul 1997 | 15,111 |
Citations are OpenAlex's own counts, from its 2026-09-23 snapshot, so the ranking can differ from Google Scholar or Web of Science. A paper is listed for a field when OpenAlex files it under one of the field's topics; retracted papers and papers whose citation count cannot be traced to citing works are left out, and a preprint and the article it became are shown once. Release dates are OpenAlex's: where a source gave only a month or a year, that is what is shown. How the lists are chosen.