An author co-citation analysis of the research field social psychology

The aim of this thesis is to use the bibliometric method author cocitation analysis (ACA) and investigate the cognitive structure in a research field, which is called the intellectual base. The research field in this investigation is social psychology. The main question is: what is the nature of the cognitive structure, which contains of the intellectual base. This question is divided in two sub questions: • Which are the most prominent authors in the research field? • Which sub areas, based on groups of the most cocited authors in the research field, can be identified?An investigation with ACA is used to describe the general experience of consensus of later authors in a research field. It is assumed that if two authors are cited cumulatively together (cocited), it’s an indication of an intellectual relationship between them. The investigation is made by gathering data from ISI’s database SSCI from the period 1999-2007. The authors with most cocitations in the field during this period were identified and considered the most prominent authors in the field. These author cocitation frequencies were analysed with MDS-techniques and visualised in a map in two dimensions. Three sub areas of the research field were then identified, based on groups of authors on the map and their subject matter:Sub area 1: Theories about social cognitionSub area 2: Theories about emotions and social influenceSub area 3: Theories about characteristic feature (trait)Uppsatsnivå: