Top Ten Psychology Studies
Just because a study is old doesn't mean it's irrelevant. Indeed, the effects of many older studies are still being felt in psychology today. Generations of psychology students have wandered out of lectures, seeing themselves and other people in a new light. So, in this series of posts I look at ten studies that have changed psychology and the way we see humanity.
Have a read and vote for the one that most captures your imagination below.
"What do babies understand about the world and how can you possibly find out, given that babies are not so hot on answering complex questions about their perceptual abilities?"
"It's not just Miller who was persecuted by this number though, it's all of us. What this magical number represents - 7 plus or minus 2 - is the number of items we can hold in our short-term memory."
"It seems incredible that a successful form of psychological therapy could be based on telling people their thoughts are mistaken. And yet that is partly how cognitive therapy works."
"Imagine it's the 1960s and you're a first year psychology student at the University of Minnesota. Being a brave soul, along with wanting a better final grade, you've agreed to take part in a psychology experiment. You've heard that it involves testing a new vitamin injection but that hasn't put you off."
"It was Fechner who, with the publication of his masterwork Elements of Psychophysics in 1860, is often credited with helping to found experimental psychology (Fechner, 1860). Strange, really, for a man who set out to prove plants have souls."
"What psychological experiment could so be so powerful that simply taking part might change your view of yourself and human nature? What experimental procedure could provoke some people to profuse sweating and trembling, leaving 10% extremely upset, while others broke into unexplained hysterical laughter?"
"...we examine the quality of our memories, in particular the ways in which memory can be changed after the event we are remembering. The work of Elizabeth Loftus has been extremely influential in this area as one of her early studies demonstrates."
"...what can psychologists tell us about the systematic differences between people? To answer this question I have to break the pattern just this once and include two studies, from two apparently warring factions of personality psychology."
"Would you bet £10 on the flip of a coin if you stood to win £20? So you've got a 50% chance of losing £10 and a 50% chance of winning £20. This seems like a good bet to take and yet studies show that people tend not to take it. Why?"
"To really understand the revolutionary nature of Freud's work you need to do something for me: to forget you've every heard of him or his ideas. Just lie back...relax...."
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» Also, check out the top ten social psychology studies.
Labels: Top Ten Studies
32 comments
Are we including Milgram in this?
Moochy, I was debating exactly that earlier. Milgram's studies have been extremely influential and they profoundly affected the way we view ourselves so I guess I can't really leave them out.
Views?
Here's my unbalanced opinion: I'd actually like to hear about some less well known but equally powerful studies, like the Schacter and Singer one - maybe I'm jaded but I don't think the importance of Milgram (and Zimbardo's Standford Prison Experiment also) could possibly be emphasised more in my mind!
I think including Milgram is especially important since his test has been manipulated and stretched to cover theories that he did not intend to research with his work. One such stretch includes his data being used with anti-abortion critics. Apparently, the study found that individuals are more likely to harm themselves or their fetuses when the practice is sanctioned by the governement. I personally was schocked to see the angle that this study was given, and would appreciate if the scientific community would re-introduce Milgram's work and explain the true intentions of the study.
I don't see how Milgram (and perhaps Zimbardo) could not be included.
But perhaps the next Top Ten list could focus on the the most unrecognized studies? That is, studies that appear to be underappreciated?
Of course, I would not envy anyone having to come up with that list.
You're all convincing me that Milgram can't be left out. That said, I will cook up an interesting new angle for it. As Eleanor points out, it's been done to death.
Andrew, Top Ten unrecognised studies? Not a bad idea at all...watch this space!
stanford prison exp is a no brainer, how about Bandura's bobo doll study and Watson's "little albert" study, Pavlov's salivating dog study...
i'm not sure that Milgram has been "done to death" in the general populace, and any "top ten" list is likely to attract a flurry of non-expert visitors, who might still be stunned by that result.
here's one: learned helplessness. how has that result held up, to what degree has it taught us something or led to poor assessment of particular types of data?
StaffPsy & ACM, thanks for your suggestions - I'm starting to think this'll have to be a top 20!
With Milgram, I'm still going to try and have my cake and eat it by giving it a bit of a slant. But I take your points it's got to be in there.
Zimbardo's prison experiment? Hmmm....
Looking at those studies I can see why psychology is more irrelevant than ever (and why the profession is dying a slow death).
Anonymous, is that you Tom Cruise?
Zajonc's primacy of affect studies.
After a long period of viewing emotion and affect as 'noise in the machine', Zajonc (and Le Doux) helped place emotion back onto the research agenda.
Bruner's early experiments devoted to documenting the influence of culture on perception might be worth considering. There was the classic card study, but my personal favorite is the coin study...
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bruner/Value/
Thanks Philip and Anonymous for your suggestions. I'm very tempted to use one of Zajonc's studies as emotion is one of my special interests.
Bruner's work is extremely well regarded - how social factors affects perception is fascinating. Unfortunately I can't put him in because his work is too similar to Fechner. Sorry!
It's a little sad that you missed out Pavlov, but he is a little overlooked anyway. What about Skinner? Or the other Behaviourists?
I found it a bit of a kick in the teeth to again see Freud's name in there. It's enough for the public to equate psychology with couches and oedipal complexes.
While it is definitely more popular to list those who are dead (and won't be publishing anymore), but what about a list of papers written by living psychologists? You know, Elizabeth Loftus, Steven Pinker and such.
You might be interested in a paper recently published that listed the 100 most prominent psychologists (which for the life of me I can't find)
Thanks for your comment Alf.
The paper you're referring to is: Haggbloom, S., Warnick, R., Warnick, J., Jones, V., Yarbrough, G., Russell, T., et al. (2002). The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century. Review of General Psychology, 6(2), 139-152.
Actually I used this to help give me ideas for the 10 studies. This has Skinner as the most eminent with Piaget second and Freud third.
So including Freud is defensible and you'll notice there's not one mention of complexes in my write-up!
Maybe leaving out Skinner is not so defensible. But, it's my personal choice and there's probably at least 20 other names the exclusion of which also aren't defensible!
BTW, one of the studies is by Elizabeth Loftus! And Daniel Kahneman, Walter Mischel and Aaron T. Beck are all still alive (as of writing).
Freud? What constitutes a psychology research study? You must be using these terms very loosely. The idea of unconscious processes was not new, and he never actually referred to the unconscious as an iceberg. As someone who studies personality, I consider his ideas of historical/popular interest, but he would be today a psychiatrist, and eschewed any suggestion of actually testing his notions.
Freud was not the first to propose the unconscious mind. Both Helmholtz and Wundt hypothesizd the existence of unconscious thought earlier, as well as a host of philosophers. That aside, if this is a list of the Top 10 psychological *studies* (rather than just psychological ideas, more generally) what is the study that Freud conducted in which he "demonstrated" the existence of the unconscious?
Thanks for your comments Anonymous and Christopher.
Poor ol' Siggy! He's getting a bashing here isn't he? Apparently he's unoriginal, unscientific and he didn't carry out 'studies'. Anyone else agree?
I don't. Just because he formulated his theories from individual cases doesn't mean he was unscientific. As for originality you've got to think of Newton and standing on the shoulders of giants. People don't work in a vacuum - it's how they choose, combine and refine ideas that's important.
Considering the number of chapters in introductory psych books it seems unlikely that a meaningful list of 10, a list of studies that are clearly better than numbers 11-20, can be constructed. With that in mind I would like to nominate Ebbinghaus' 1885 monograph in memory. It was clever, original, and stimulated a long line of research. I'd also like to make an unvote for Watson's Little Albert 'thing'. It makes a good story but it was poorly executed, the dependent variables were rather vague, and the results were less than clear. It has, however, had an effect on a long line of introductory psych texts.
Rick, I'm thinking about creating new lists of influential studies, perhaps in more defined areas of psychology, so I'll definitely consider Ebbinghaus. Thank you.
Milgram's study is not only among the most important but it is also impressive to be able to conduct experimental research in a lab on an overarching human and social question. Which is what he did. It also supports the social psyc assumption that situations are powerful... that individuality competes more than we like to think with the force of a powerful social situation.. so Nazi Eichmann then can be seen, plausibly, as less of an individual monster, if you will, because many of us would have behaved as shockingly badly... in his situation, is how that argument goes.
There's a good lecture by Kahneman on his work online. The Psychology of Large Mistakes and Important Decisions. Sweet.
http://www.vanleer.org.il/eng/videoShow.asp?id=118
Sandra, thanks for the link. Here's the same link to Daniel Kahneman's lecture which saves you all copying and pasting.
hmm interesting topic! Looks like beck is in the lead at the moment, followed closely by milgram. I voted freud, i think he really revolutionalised psychology, especially with regard to the treatment of children and neurotic disorders. Plus im a die hard freudian!! If he hadnt have been on the lsit then i would have voted Kahenman and Taversky.I replicated their infamous framing effects experiment, if anyone is interested in reading it then you can find it here http://www.chloeconnolly.com
Interesting discussion... I'm curious as to why Beck's depression study was nominated instead of his suicide study? I find the suicide results to be pretty impressive... but I know the depression study founded his therapy, etc.
Hi Chloe, thanks and now as I write, Milgram is back in the lead... Come on Fechner what are you doing back there? Stop talking to the plants!
Kay, the point is well made by Rick above that choosing 10 studies from across the diversity of psychology is difficult. What I've done is try to provide a representative range of work. As for Beck, it could just as easily have been the suicide study as it still would have given me that chance to talk about his great ideas.
hi! anyone know what is the best university for learning psychology?( top 20 )..
thanks!^^
Helen, you'll probably need to be a little more specific - e.g. country and level of study..
hey.can any1 tell me the top 10 universities in US to study psychology (masters). also if possible a list of the best universities offering specializations in subjects like OB, clinical psy, etc. thanks
I enjoyed studying Thigpen and Cleckley, I wish I could find someone with MPD.
Does anyone know where to study psychology in the UK?
Can anyone give some informed advice on choosing between Bath and Surrey for Psychology BSc?! In terms of course content/focus, type of students etc. - I know that both have a placement year. Would be much appreciated!