Subfield · Social Psychology
Most cited papers in Social Psychology
What are the most cited papers in Social Psychology?
The most cited paper in Social Psychology is "Using thematic analysis in psychology" (Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke, 2006), with 193,920 citations. Next come "The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations." (72,222) and "The PHQ-9" (45,744).
Showing 50 of 99 papers. Every paper with more than 6,791 citations is listed.
| # | Paper | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Using thematic analysis in psychology Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke · Qualitative Research in Psychology | 2006 | 193,920 |
| 2 | 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 |
| 3 | The PHQ-9 Kurt Kroenke, Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B. W. Williams · Journal of General Internal Medicine | Sep 2001 | 45,744 |
| 4 | Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control Albert Bandura, Wendy Freeman, Richard Lightsey · Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy | 1999 | 40,874 |
| 5 | Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. James C. Anderson, David W. Gerbing · Psychological Bulletin | May 1988 | 40,395 |
| 6 | An Inventory for Measuring Depression Aaron T. Beck · Archives of General Psychiatry | Jun 1961 | 38,441 |
| 7 | Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.). Peter A. Lachenbruch, Jacob Cohen · Journal of the American Statistical Association | Dec 1989 | 37,611 |
| 8 | 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 |
| 9 | 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 |
| 10 | A Global Measure of Perceived Stress Sheldon Cohen, Tom Kamarck, Robin J. Mermelstein · Journal of Health and Social Behavior | Dec 1983 | 33,209 |
| 11 | 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 |
| 12 | 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 |
| 13 | 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 |
| 14 | Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation Hazel Rose Markus, Shinobu Kitayama · Psychological Review | Apr 1991 | 21,129 |
| 15 | The Evolution of Cooperation Robert Axelrod, William D. O. Hamilton · Science | 27 Mar 1981 | 20,368 |
| 16 | Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions Richard M. Ryan, Edward L. Deci · Contemporary Educational Psychology | 2000 | 18,640 |
| 17 | Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Sheldon Cohen, Thomas A. Wills · Psychological Bulletin | Sep 1985 | 17,584 |
| 18 | Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective Albert Bandura · Annual Review of Psychology | Feb 2001 | 15,325 |
| 19 | Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of Empirical and Theoretical Research Sandra G. Hart, Lowell E. Staveland · Advances in psychology | 1988 | 14,841 |
| 20 | The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Barbara L. Fredrickson · American Psychologist | Mar 2001 | 14,780 |
| 21 | Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: Conceptual issues and research evidence. Ilan H. Meyer · Psychological Bulletin | Sep 2003 | 14,720 |
| 22 | Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries Shalom H. Schwartz · Advances in experimental social psychology | 1992 | 14,493 |
| 23 | The measurement of experienced burnout Christina Maslach, Susan E. Jackson · Journal of Organizational Behavior | Apr 1981 | 14,438 |
| 24 | Depression and Quality of Life in Older Persons: A Review Heidi Sivertsen, Guro Hanevold Bjørkløf, Knut Engedal et al. · Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders | 2015 | 14,132 |
| 25 | Observational Study of Behavior: Sampling Methods Jeanne Altmann · Behaviour | 1974 | 14,015 |
| 26 | The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Kirk Warren Brown, Richard M. Ryan · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | 2003 | 13,566 |
| 27 | The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior Henri Tajfel, John C. Turner · Political Psychology | 9 Jan 2004 | 13,549 |
| 28 | The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support Gregory D. Zimet, Nancy Wray Dahlem, Sara Goodman Zimet et al. · Journal of Personality Assessment | Mar 1988 | 13,379 |
| 29 | Job Burnout Christina Maslach, Wilmar B. Schaufeli, Michael P. Leiter · Annual Review of Psychology | Feb 2001 | 12,801 |
| 30 | Consumer Perceptions of Price, Quality, and Value: A Means-End Model and Synthesis of Evidence Valarie A. Zeithaml · Journal of Marketing | Jul 1988 | 12,714 |
| 31 | Lifetime and 12-Month Prevalence of DSM-III-R Psychiatric Disorders in the United States Ronald C. Kessler · Archives of General Psychiatry | 1994 | 12,546 |
| 32 | The weirdest people in the world? Joseph Henrich, Steven J. Heine, Ara Norenzayan · Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Jun 2010 | 12,508 |
| 33 | Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and Truths about Mediation Analysis Xinshu Zhao, John G Lynch, Qimei Chen · Journal of Consumer Research | 15 Feb 2010 | 12,379 |
| 34 | The job demands-resources model of burnout. Evangelia Demerouti, Arnold B. Bakker, Friedhelm Nachreiner et al. · Journal of Applied Psychology | Jun 2001 | 12,369 |
| 35 | Prevalence, Severity, and Comorbidity of 12-Month DSM-IV Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Ronald C. Kessler, Wai Tat Chiu, Olga Demler et al. · Archives of General Psychiatry | Jun 2005 | 12,219 |
| 36 | Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. James Jonathan Gross, Oliver P. John · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | 2003 | 11,993 |
| 37 | The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. Theodore M. Newcomb, Fritz Heider · American Sociological Review | Dec 1958 | 11,956 |
| 38 | Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams Amy C. Edmondson · Administrative Science Quarterly | Jun 1999 | 11,679 |
| 39 | On Happiness and Human Potentials: A Review of Research on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being Richard M. Ryan, Edward L. Deci · Annual Review of Psychology | Feb 2001 | 11,546 |
| 40 | Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Ed Diener, Eunkook Mark Suh, Richard E. Lucas et al. · Psychological Bulletin | Mar 1999 | 11,478 |
| 41 | A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment John P. Meyer, Natalie J. Allen · Human Resource Management Review | Mar 1991 | 10,993 |
| 42 | Principal component analysis Hervé Abdi, Lynne J. Williams · Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Computational Statistics | Jul 2010 | 10,890 |
| 43 | Short screening scales to monitor population prevalences and trends in non-specific psychological distress Ronald C. Kessler, Gavin Andrews, Lisa J. Colpe et al. · Psychological Medicine | Aug 2002 | 10,488 |
| 44 | A scaling method for priorities in hierarchical structures Thomas L. Saaty · Journal of Mathematical Psychology | Jun 1977 | 10,402 |
| 45 | Positive psychology: An introduction. Martin E. P. Seligman, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi · American Psychologist | 2000 | 9,964 |
| 46 | Validation and Utility of a Self-report Version of PRIME-MD The PHQ Primary Care Study Robert L. Spitzer · JAMA | 10 Nov 1999 | 9,950 |
| 47 | Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy. Terrie E. Moffitt · Psychological Review | 1993 | 9,942 |
| 48 | ape 5.0: an environment for modern phylogenetics and evolutionary analyses in R Emmanuel Paradis, Klaus Peter Schliep · Bioinformatics | 14 Jul 2018 | 9,939 |
| 49 | The Measurement of Engagement and Burnout: A Two Sample Confirmatory Factor Analytic Approach Wilmar B. Schaufeli, Marisa Salanova, Vicente González‐Romá et al. · Journal of Happiness Studies | Mar 2002 | 9,937 |
| 50 | Measuring emotion: The self-assessment manikin and the semantic differential Margaret M. Bradley, Peter J. Lang · Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry | Mar 1994 | 9,653 |
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.