Most cited papers in Behavioral Health and Interventions
What are the most cited papers in Behavioral Health and Interventions?
The most cited paper in Behavioral Health and Interventions is "The theory of planned behavior" (Icek Ajzen, 1991), with 87,913 citations. Next come "Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies." (80,679) and "Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control" (40,874).
Showing 50 of 100 papers. Every paper with more than 2,938 citations is listed.
| # | Paper | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The theory of planned behavior Icek Ajzen · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes | Dec 1991 | 87,913 |
| 2 | 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 |
| 3 | Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control Albert Bandura, Wendy Freeman, Richard Lightsey · Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy | 1999 | 40,874 |
| 4 | 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 |
| 5 | 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 |
| 6 | The behaviour change wheel: A new method for characterising and designing behaviour change interventions Susan G. Michie, Maartje Marieke van Stralen, Robert West · Implementation Science | 23 Apr 2011 | 14,380 |
| 7 | 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 |
| 8 | The social readjustment rating scale Thomas H. Holmes, Richard H. Rahe · Journal of Psychosomatic Research | Aug 1967 | 11,193 |
| 9 | The Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence: a revision of the Fagerstrom Tolerance Questionnaire Todd F. Heatherton, Lynn T. Kozlowski, Richard C. Frecker et al. · British Journal of Addiction | Sep 1991 | 10,879 |
| 10 | Calculating and reporting effect sizes to facilitate cumulative science: a practical primer for t-tests and ANOVAs Daniël Lakens · Frontiers in Psychology | 2013 | 10,466 |
| 11 | Amazon's Mechanical Turk Michael D. Buhrmester, Tracy Kwang, Samuel D. Gosling · Perspectives on Psychological Science | 2011 | 10,128 |
| 12 | Efficacy of the Theory of Planned Behaviour: A meta‐analytic review Christopher J. Armitage, Mark T. Conner · British Journal of Social Psychology | Dec 2001 | 9,991 |
| 13 | ‘Small Changes' to Diet and Physical Activity Behaviors for Weight Management Andrew Peter Hills, Nuala Mary Byrne, Rachel C. Lindstrom et al. · Obesity Facts | 2013 | 9,508 |
| 14 | The Health Belief Model: A Decade Later Nancy K. Janz, Marshall H. Becker · Health Education Quarterly | Mar 1984 | 8,531 |
| 15 | The case for motivated reasoning. Ziva Kunda · Psychological Bulletin | 1990 | 8,390 |
| 16 | The Behavior Change Technique Taxonomy (v1) of 93 Hierarchically Clustered Techniques: Building an International Consensus for the Reporting of Behavior Change Interventions Susan G. Michie, Michelle Richardson, Marie Johnston et al. · Annals of Behavioral Medicine | 19 Mar 2013 | 8,236 |
| 17 | Accounting for common method variance in cross-sectional research designs. Michael K. Lindell, David J. Whitney · Journal of Applied Psychology | 2001 | 8,130 |
| 18 | The Transtheoretical Model of Health Behavior Change James O. Prochaska, Wayne F. Velicer · American Journal of Health Promotion | Sep 1997 | 7,919 |
| 19 | The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion Richard E. Petty, John T. Cacioppo · Advances in experimental social psychology | 1986 | 7,808 |
| 20 | Self‐determination theory and work motivation Marylène Gagné, Edward L. Deci · Journal of Organizational Behavior | 14 Apr 2005 | 7,722 |
| 21 | Perceived Behavioral Control, Self‐Efficacy, Locus of Control, and the Theory of Planned Behavior 1 Icek Ajzen · Journal of Applied Social Psychology | Apr 2002 | 7,619 |
| 22 | Bad is Stronger than Good Roy Frederick Baumeister, Ellen Bratslavsky, Catrin Finkenauer et al. · Review of General Psychology | Dec 2001 | 7,560 |
| 23 | Health Promotion by Social Cognitive Means Albert Bandura · Health Education & Behavior | Apr 2004 | 7,411 |
| 24 | Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: The BIS/BAS Scales. Charles S. Carver, Teri L. White · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | Aug 1994 | 7,173 |
| 25 | A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Edward L. Deci, Richard Koestner, Richard M. Ryan · Psychological Bulletin | 1999 | 6,955 |
| 26 | Social cognitive theory of self-regulation Albert Bandura · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes | Dec 1991 | 6,843 |
| 27 | Forming inferences about some intraclass correlation coefficients. Kenneth O. McGraw, S. P. Wong · Psychological Methods | Mar 1996 | 6,836 |
| 28 | A Protection Motivation Theory of Fear Appeals and Attitude Change1 Ronald W. Rogers · The Journal of Psychology | Sep 1975 | 6,821 |
| 29 | Self-determination theory: A macrotheory of human motivation, development, and health. Edward L. Deci, Richard M. Ryan · Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne | Aug 2008 | 6,668 |
| 30 | High Self‐Control Predicts Good Adjustment, Less Pathology, Better Grades, and Interpersonal Success June Price Tangney, Roy Frederick Baumeister, Angie Luzio Boone · Journal of Personality | 23 Feb 2004 | 6,649 |
| 31 | Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Yaacov Trope, Nira Liberman · Psychological Review | 2010 | 6,585 |
| 32 | Ecological Momentary Assessment Saul S. Shiffman, Arthur A. Stone, Michael R. Hufford · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology | 28 Nov 2007 | 6,479 |
| 33 | Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes. Anthony G. Greenwald, Mahzarin R. Banaji · Psychological Review | 1995 | 6,461 |
| 34 | Social Influence: Compliance and Conformity Robert B. Cialdini, Noah J. Goldstein · Annual Review of Psychology | 27 Jan 2004 | 6,105 |
| 35 | Best Practices for Developing and Validating Scales for Health, Social, and Behavioral Research: A Primer Godfred Odei Boateng, Torsten B. Neilands, Edward A. Frongillo et al. · Frontiers in Public Health | 11 Jun 2018 | 5,774 |
| 36 | A focus theory of normative conduct: Recycling the concept of norms to reduce littering in public places. Robert B. Cialdini, Raymond R. Reno, Carl A. Kallgren · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | Jun 1990 | 5,740 |
| 37 | Social Learning Theory and the Health Belief Model Irwin M. Rosenstock, Victor J. Strecher, Marshall H. Becker · Health Education Quarterly | Jun 1988 | 5,611 |
| 38 | Prediction of goal-directed behavior: Attitudes, intentions, and perceived behavioral control Icek Ajzen, Thomas J. Madden · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology | Sep 1986 | 5,553 |
| 39 | Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. Peter M. Gollwitzer · American Psychologist | Jul 1999 | 5,380 |
| 40 | Anxiety and cognitive performance: Attentional control theory. Michael W. Eysenck, Nazanin Derakshan, Rita Santos et al. · Emotion | 2007 | 5,292 |
| 41 | Validation of the theoretical domains framework for use in behaviour change and implementation research James E. Cane, Denise A O’Connor, Susan G. Michie · Implementation Science | 24 Apr 2012 | 5,203 |
| 42 | Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response Jay Joseph Van Bavel et al. · Nature Human Behaviour | 30 Apr 2020 | 5,135 |
| 43 | The general causality orientations scale: Self-determination in personality Edward L. Deci, Richard M. Ryan · Journal of Research in Personality | Jun 1985 | 5,099 |
| 44 | Encouraging pro-environmental behaviour: An integrative review and research agenda Linda Steg, Charles A. J. Vlek · Journal of Environmental Psychology | 20 Nov 2008 | 5,063 |
| 45 | Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change Franziska Marquart, Brigitte Naderer | 5 Nov 2015 | 5,025 |
| 46 | Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource? Roy Frederick Baumeister, Ellen Bratslavsky, Mark B. Muraven et al. · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | 1998 | 4,968 |
| 47 | A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety Terrie E. Moffitt, Louise Arseneault, Daniel W. Belsky et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 24 Jan 2011 | 4,916 |
| 48 | Unrealistic optimism about future life events. Neil D. Weinstein · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | Nov 1980 | 4,886 |
| 49 | Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. Edwin A. Locke, Gary P. Latham · American Psychologist | 2002 | 4,807 |
| 50 | Beyond pleasure and pain. E. Tory Higgins · American Psychologist | 1997 | 4,363 |
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.