Twenty Years of PSPB: Trends in Content, Design, and Analysis

Abstract

This investigation assessed the nature of research published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (PSPB) during the past 20 years (1976-1996) compared to another major journal in the field, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP). Articles in both journals have tended to become longer, to contain more studies, to be authored by more collaborators, and to employ a greater diversity of statistical analyses. Research in both journals has relied heavily on experimental designs using college undergraduates as participants, although the temporal pattern of this reliance is somewhat different in the two journals. Articles in PSPB have consistently emphasized the domain of attitudes and social cognition more than those in JPSP. The implications of these patterns are discussed in terms of their significance for progress in the field and their impact on the career experiences of researchers.

A nonparametric method to analyze interactions: The adjusted rank transform test

“…The literature that is most frequently referred to (Howell, 1999;Kenny, Kashy, & Bolger, 1998;Keppel, 1991) deals mostly with common nonparametric tests but not with complex issues, like interactions, leaving researchers confronted with a conundrum. Two reviews support this assumption: Sherman, Buddie, Dragan, End, and Finney (1999) analyzed all publications within 20 years in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (PSPB) whereas Stone-Romero, Weaver, and Glenar (1995) analyzed the Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP). Fifteen percents of all studies in PSPB and less than height in JAP used nonparametric tests.…”

Three Decades of Social Psychology: A Longitudinal Analysis of Baron and Byrne's Textbook

“…To the extent that this book mirrors societal concerns, it might be interesting to see, in light of increased concerns about terrorism in the United States (and elsewhere), if human conflict and aggression will receive increased coverage in future editions. Sherman et al (1999) found a drop in research published between 1976 and 1996 on group processes and attitudes (but not persuasion). Sherman et al did not explicitly examine the topics of aggression and human conflict, subsuming them in the categories of interpersonal interaction or group processes.…”

“…We suspect that increases in coverage of attraction, self-processes, and stereotyping and prejudice may stem from the inclusion of material that relates to the role of cognitive processes in these phenomena. In an analysis of one of the leading journals in social psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Sherman, Buddie, Dragan, End, and Finney (1999) found that research published on the topic of stereotyping and prejudice increased sharply between 1986 and 1996. Likewise, these researchers noted a more than threefold increase in research published on self-processes and a twofold increase in research published on cognitive processes between 1976 and 1996.…”

Strains in experimental social psychology: A textual anaylsis of the development of experimentation in social psychology

“…During this same period, laboratory experiments filled the mainstream social psychological journals, and other research was effectively banished. For example, Helmreich (1975) (Sherman, Buddie, Dragan, End, & Finney, 1999). Moreover, experimentation (including "true" experiments, quasi-experiments, and experiments with some combination of manipulated and measured independent variables) remains the most commonly used methodology.…”