Whos Who in Introductory Psychology Textbooks: A Citation Analysis Redux

It is important to assess periodically how introductory textbooks portray our discipline because introductory psychology is the most popular psychology course, almost all teachers use textbooks for it, and textbooks play a major role in defining the course for students. To do so, past studies have used textbook citation analyses. We analyzed current textbooks to update the citation findings of these studies for the most cited articles, books, and psychologists. Many highly cited articles and books have decreased in citation frequency, likely due to a currency bias and authors’ citation preferences. Freud had the highest citation page count, reinforcing students’ misconception of his importance in contemporary scientific psychology. Our findings should help teachers in making choices about course content and emphases.
Source: Teaching of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Topical Articles Source Type: research