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...."
» Also, check out the top ten social psychology studies.
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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)