Naming in Psychology: Analyses of Citation Counts and Eponyms

Abstract

Three analyses are reported of the empirical assessment of naming in psychology: (1) authors' naming ratios (total surname counts divided by total number of textbook pages) in introductory psychology textbooks, (2) analysis of individual psychologists frequencies of citation, and (3) identification, cataloguing, and categorizing eponyms. Analyses indicate that current (1990–1994) authors show significantly different frequencies of naming among themselves and that during the past 75 years there has been a significant increase in naming over-all in textbooks as well as naming particular psychologists. Eponyms on a list of over 1,000 collected eponyms are assigned to low-, medium-, or high-frequency categories based on referencing in selected source books. Questions are raised concerning the use of naming, citation counts, and eponyms in the historical analysis of psychology as a science.

The 100 Most Eminent Psychologists of the 20th Century

“…That is a reasonably wide net, and the eponyms listed in Table 4 are evidently in sufficiently widespread use to have been caught by it. Of the 52 eponyms listed in Table 4, 36 (69%) appeared in two or more of the sources used by Roeckelein (1995). The many possible eponyms one could conceivably associate with the remaining names appearing in Table 4 were evidently below the threshold of detection of the Roeckelein (1995) study.…”

“…Of the 52 eponyms listed in Table 4, 36 (69%) appeared in two or more of the sources used by Roeckelein (1995). The many possible eponyms one could conceivably associate with the remaining names appearing in Table 4 were evidently below the threshold of detection of the Roeckelein (1995) study. This is simply on a par with the fact that 37 names on the most eminent list were not on the JCL.…”

“…Actually, we suspect we do use these expressions in print. However, our source for eponyms was a list referenced by Roeckelein (1995) that included eponyms reported by Zusne (1987). Roeckelein constructed his list of eponyms from the entries in 7 different dictionaries of psychology, entries in the subject index from 30 specialty area textbooks published from 1953 to 1994, and Zusne's book.…”

“…(In fact, roughly one quarter [24%] of the psychologists in this study who received credit on the APA variable served as APA president and received the Outstanding Scientific Contributions Award.) Our source for eponyms was an unpublished list referenced by Roeckelein (1995) that included eponyms identified by Zusne (1987).…”

“…The variables that have been used to measure eminence in psychology include frequency of citation in the professional journal literature (e.g., Endler, Rushton, & Roediger, 1978;Garfield, 1978Garfield, , 1992Myers, 1970), frequency of citation in introduction to psychology textbooks (e.g., Gorenflo & McConnell, 1991;Kaess & Bousfield, 1954;Knapp, 1985;Perlman, 1980;Roeckelein, 1995), and surveys of professional opinion (e.g., Annin, Boring, & Watson, 1968;Coan & Zagona, 1962;Korn, Davis, & Davis, 1991). These measures yield quantitative or ordinal-level data that have been used to construct rank-ordered lists.…”