Fourteen Years of Social Psychology: A Growing Commitment to Field Experimentation
Has the percentage of field experiments in basic and applied social psychology increased recently? In the more basic area, the annual percentage of field experiments in the Journal of Social Psychology rose from about 1% in 1961 to about 10% in 1974, and in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology (1961 - 1964)/Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (1965-1974) the percentages rose from a 1961-1969 level of about 2.5-3% to a post-1969 level of about 5%. The major applied journal (Journal of Applied Social Psychology) began in 1971, making a trend extimate impossible. However, the annual percentages (17%-33%) were higher than in the basic journals. The evaluation research literature in areas of concern to social psychologists indicates a higher percentage of field experiments than in the basic research journals. Our results give a different picture of the field involvement of social psychologists than do the results of Fried, Gumpper, and Allen (1973).