Günter Krampen & Han s-Werner Wahl Geropsychology and Psychology in the Last Quarter of the 20th Century Geropsychology and Psychology in the Last Quarter of the 20th Century Bibliometrical Results for the German-Speaking Versus Anglo-American Research Co

This paper presents bibliometrical results on the development of geronto-psychology in the last quarter of the 20th century. Analyses are based on the psychology literature documented in PsycINFO, covering mainly publications from the Anglo-American region, and PSYNDEX, covering publications from the German-speaking countries, for the years 1977 to 2000. Results show that both literature bodies on gerontopsychology have steadily grown, in absolute terms, since the beginning of the last quarter of the 20th century. The geropsychology literature in the German-speak-ing countries has grown faster than the Anglo-American literature. In terms of a relative frequency view, the findings support the notion that geropsychology has found a clear and stable position within psychology as a whole in both research communities, contributing 1–3 % to the over-all psychology literature and 8–15 % (PsycINFO) respectively 30–50% (PSYNDEX) to the overall developmental psychology literature since 1978