What Is History of Psychology? Network Analysis of Journal Citation Reports, 2009-2015

What is it about?

Historians of psychology have a reputation for caring about topics that aren't relevant to contemporary science. But when you consider the entirety of what the specialist community is doing, then it's clear that much of what historians study is indeed relevant to understanding how psychological science produces its impact: not only what the science itself is about, but also how it affects those it describes, where the money comes from that pays for it, how ideas and people become famous or influential, and how those factors combine to make it possible to conduct the experiments that advance our scientific understanding of ourselves. We show for the first time how all of those pieces fit together, and how they are used differently by different historians. In short, we show how history is done in psychology.

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