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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. 18.4% 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%
4.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
18.4%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
1
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+7%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead General Psychology research?

On research quality in 2022–2025, the United States rank highest in General Psychology. By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (755 and 186 works in 2022–2025).

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States · #1 all time 16.2% top 10% · 755 works

The track on each row is that row’s top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the composite score, which the rate is only one part of.

Of 1 countries ranked in General Psychology. Composite of field-normalised excellence (50%), output (30%) and citations (20%); the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in General Psychology

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States 755 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 186 works
  3. 3 China 144 works
  4. 4 Germany 135 works
  5. 5 France 115 works
  6. 6 Brazil 90 works
  7. 7 Canada 77 works
  8. 8 Russia 61 works
  9. 9 Australia 55 works
  10. 10 Italy 55 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: 45.2%United Kingdom: 11.1%China: 8.6%Germany: 8.1%6 others listed: 27.0%45%largest
United States755 · 45.2%United Kingdom186 · 11.1%China144 · 8.6%Germany135 · 8.1%6 others listed452 · 27.0%

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

Which institutions lead General Psychology research?

By volume in 2022–2025, Nanjing Normal University publishes the most General Psychology research, followed by Peking University and Columbia University.

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Nanjing Normal UniversityChina 15 works
  2. 2 Peking UniversityChina 14 works
  3. 3 Columbia UniversityUnited States 14 works
  4. 4 Hebei Normal UniversityChina 13 works
  5. 5 The Ohio State UniversityUnited States 11 works
  6. 6 Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 11 works
  7. 7 John Jay College of Criminal JusticeUnited States 10 works
  8. 8 Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of GalwayIreland 9 works
  9. 9 University of GroningenNetherlands 9 works
  10. 10 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 9 works

Who are the leading researchers in General Psychology?

Among the most productive authors in General Psychology, Sigmund Freud, Sander L. Gilman and Judith Butler rank highest on the composite score.

  1. 1 Sigmund Freud United States · #25 worldwide 2.7k citations · 174 works
  2. 2 Sander L. Gilman United States · #37 worldwide 4.2k citations · 154 works
  3. 3 Judith Butler United States · #70 worldwide 6.7k citations · 132 works
  4. 4 Richard M. Ryan United States · #153 worldwide 10k citations · 118 works
  5. 5 Frederick Mosteller United States · #203 worldwide 2.3k citations · 145 works
  6. 6 Howard Gardner United States · #205 worldwide 3.7k citations · 123 works
  7. 7 Jean Piaget Switzerland · #208 worldwide 1.6k citations · 144 works
  8. 8 Peter J. Schwartz Italy · #261 worldwide 3.3k citations · 179 works
  9. 9 John T. Cacioppo United States · #364 worldwide 3.7k citations · 119 works
  10. 10 H.J. Eysenck United Kingdom · #388 worldwide 5.7k citations · 103 works

Re-ranked on the composite score from the 2,930 highest-output authors in General Psychology. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 General Psychology researchers

Where is General Psychology research done?

The largest centres of General Psychology research in 2022–2025 are New York (United States), London (United Kingdom), Paris (France) and Beijing (China).

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 New York United States 78 works
  2. 2 London United Kingdom 50 works
  3. 3 Paris France 46 works
  4. 4 Beijing China 37 works
  5. 5 Washington D.C. United States 33 works
  6. 6 Moscow Russia 28 works
  7. 7 Los Angeles United States 27 works
  8. 8 Vienna Austria 19 works
  9. 9 Nanjing China 18 works
  10. 10 Toronto Canada 18 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, Hebei Normal University, University of Groningen and Nanjing Normal University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 16.42%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Hebei Normal University: 13, 30.9%University of Groningen: 9, 30.4%Nanjing Normal University: 15, 15.7%Peking University: 14, 27.9%Columbia University: 14, 12.1%Princeton University: 8, 10.1%Catholic University of America: 8, 12.4%Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway: 9, 0.0%John Jay College of Criminal Justice: 10, 2.3%University of Toronto: 8, 22.4%Hebei Normal Univers…University of Gronin…Peking UniversityNanjing Normal Unive…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 Hebei Normal UniversityChina 76.530.9%55.9×13 —
2 University of GroningenNetherlands 69.330.4%8.7×9 +5.3%
3 Nanjing Normal UniversityChina 63.215.7%20.5×15 -37.5%
4 Peking UniversityChina 59.927.9%4.2×14 —
5 Columbia UniversityUnited States 54.712.1%7.9×14 -21.5%
6 Princeton UniversityUnited States 52.610.1%9.1×8 +93.8%
7 Catholic University of AmericaUnited States 49.712.4%84.9×8 —
8 Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of GalwayIreland 39.20.0%23.6×9 -100.0%
9 John Jay College of Criminal JusticeUnited States 37.82.3%177.5×10 -26.9%
10 University of TorontoCanada 36.822.4%2.8×8 +0.4%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is General Psychology research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 7% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2020. The fastest-growing topics are Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

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

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?