Twenty Years of PSPB: Trends in Content, Design, and Analysis

Abstract

This investigation assessed the nature of research published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (PSPB) during the past 20 years (1976-1996) compared to another major journal in the field, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP). Articles in both journals have tended to become longer, to contain more studies, to be authored by more collaborators, and to employ a greater diversity of statistical analyses. Research in both journals has relied heavily on experimental designs using college undergraduates as participants, although the temporal pattern of this reliance is somewhat different in the two journals. Articles in PSPB have consistently emphasized the domain of attitudes and social cognition more than those in JPSP. The implications of these patterns are discussed in terms of their significance for progress in the field and their impact on the career experiences of researchers.