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Subfield · Psychology

General Psychology research

General Psychology is a subfield of Psychology. Science Explorer counts 25k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: branch of psychology that studies the mental functions, behaviors, and processes of individuals, exploring concepts such as perception, cognition, emotion, and motivation.

Research works
25k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
1
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-7%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
45% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
General Psychology

Which countries lead General Psychology research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States rank highest in General Psychology. By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (832 and 214 works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 0.99× excellence · 1.53× journals · 100% breadth 11.6% top 10% · 755 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 1 countries ranked in General Psychology. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in General Psychology

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 832 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 214 works
  3. 3 China 153 works
  4. 4 Germany 152 works
  5. 5 France 117 works
  6. 6 Brazil 99 works
  7. 7 Canada 82 works
  8. 8 Australia 63 works
  9. 9 Russia 62 works
  10. 10 Italy 59 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 45.4%United Kingdom: 11.6%China: 8.3%Germany: 8.3%6 others listed: 26.3%45%largest
United States832 · 45.4%United Kingdom214 · 11.6%China153 · 8.3%Germany152 · 8.3%6 others listed483 · 26.3%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead General Psychology research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most General Psychology research, followed by City University of New York and Columbia University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 24 works
  2. 2 City University of New YorkUnited States 22 works
  3. 3 Columbia UniversityUnited States 15 works
  4. 4 Nanjing Normal UniversityChina 15 works
  5. 5 Peking UniversityChina 14 works
  6. 6 Hebei Normal UniversityChina 13 works
  7. 7 The Ohio State UniversityUnited States 12 works
  8. 8 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 11 works
  9. 9 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 11 works
  10. 10 University of GroningenNetherlands 11 works

Who are the leading researchers in General Psychology?

Counting only their work in General Psychology, Theodore Xenophon Barber, Irving Kirsch and Dean Keith Simonton have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Theodore Xenophon Barber United States · #240,233 worldwide overall 10.0 of 19 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Irving Kirsch United States · #88,549 worldwide overall 9.2 of 28 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Dean Keith Simonton United States · #158,597 worldwide overall 8.5 of 23 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Kurt Danziger Canada · #580,363 worldwide overall 9.5 of 24 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Edwin A. Locke United States · #7,700 worldwide overall 5.4 of 8 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Edwin E. Ghiselli United States · #122,910 worldwide overall 5.5 of 10 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Kenneth J. Gergen United States · #228,723 worldwide overall 7.3 of 23 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Thomas H. Ogden United States · #326,408 worldwide overall 5.3 of 9 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Steven Jay Lynn United States · #958,708 worldwide overall 8.4 of 25 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Gerald N. Grob United States · #517,087 worldwide overall 5.0 of 10 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in General Psychology alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 59,231 ranked researchers with a paper here. Each paper counts once, so many strong papers outrank one famous one, and a long record of ordinary papers does not climb. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 General Psychology researchers

What are the most cited papers in General Psychology?

The most cited paper in General Psychology is "Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change." (Albert Bandura, 1977), with 35,570 citations. Next come "Emotional Intelligence" (9,321) and "Science and Human Behavior" (9,003).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Albert Bandura · Psychological Review 1977 35,570
2 Emotional Intelligence Peter Salovey, John D. Mayer · Imagination Cognition and Personality Mar 1990 9,321
3 Science and Human Behavior Ernest Kilzer, B. F. Skinner · The American Catholic Sociological Review Jun 1953 9,003
4 Criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of naturalistic inquiries Egon G. Guba · ECTJ Jun 1981 5,550
5 The need for cognition. John T. Cacioppo, Richard E. Petty · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1982 5,192
All 98 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is General Psychology research done?

The largest centres of General Psychology research in 2022-now are New York (United States), London (United Kingdom), Paris (France) and Beijing (China).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 New YorkUnited States 82 works
  2. 2 LondonUnited Kingdom 57 works
  3. 3 ParisFrance 47 works
  4. 4 BeijingChina 38 works
  5. 5 Washington D.C.United States 34 works
  6. 6 MoscowRussia 29 works
  7. 7 Los AngelesUnited States 28 works
  8. 8 ViennaAustria 20 works
  9. 9 São PauloBrazil 19 works
  10. 10 TorontoCanada 19 works
See General Psychology on the map

General Psychology research by country

The best places for General Psychology research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study General Psychology?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, Columbia University and City University of New York score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 13.65%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Harvard UniversityUniversity of Gronin…Columbia UniversityCity University of N…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Standingthis field's institution ranking, three quarters all time and a quarter 2022-now
50%
Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
20%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
5%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
15%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
5%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
5%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreRank in field (all time)Top 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Harvard UniversityUnited States 78.3- (#1)23.7%1.4×9 +117.5%
2Columbia UniversityUnited States 47.4- (#6)15.1%6.5×15 +117.7%
3City University of New YorkUnited States 44.9- (#8)7.9%19.4×22 +31.7%
4University of GroningenNetherlands 35.3-16.6%7.6×11 +110.1%
5New York UniversityUnited States 30.8- (#5)7.1%3.5×8 -27.6%
6York UniversityCanada 29.1- (#12)27.4%10.9×8 -69.5%
7The University of SydneyAustralia 24.1-16.0%3.2×8 +23.5%
8Peking UniversityChina 23.3-9.5%3.2×14 -
9Hebei Normal UniversityChina 22.6-9.5%57.9×13 -
10The Ohio State UniversityUnited States 21.1- (#13)3.7%4.7×12 +281.0%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), excellence (20%), size (15%), specialisation (5%), growth (5%), international reach (5%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise. Standing is the score in this field's institution ranking, three quarters over all time and a quarter 2022-now; excellence averages the two windows too. Four years alone undercount fields such as AI, where many conference and arXiv papers from 2022 on carry no affiliation in the data.

Every institution in General Psychology, country by country

Is General Psychology research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 7% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2020.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is General Psychology as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.011% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%General Psychology0.0090% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of General Psychology over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%General Psychology9.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

What does General Psychology include?

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