Contributions to the History of Psychology: XXXVIII. The Hyperbolic Structure of Eminence

Summary.-Using the results from previous work in which eminence measures of 698 contributors to the development of psychology ,were obtained, the mathematical function relating their eminence and rank order was ob tained. It was found that authors of history of psychology texts attribute a disproportionate amount of importance to a very small number oi contributors. The sirnation is analogous to that described by Lotka in 1926 concerning the frequency distribution of scientific productivity. Quite some time ago, Lotka (1926) found that the bulk of scientific publications was produced by a very small number of researchers and that the majority of scientists published very little, the modal frequency being one publication per author. It appears that an analogous sirnation exists with respect to writers of histories of psychology and the individuals who have contributed to the development of psychology: although hundreds of contributors are mentioned, a disproportionately large amount of space in these histories is devoted to a very small number of contributors. If the number of pages set apart by an historian to discuss the contributions of an individual is any indication of the importance of this individual to the history of psychology, then one must conclude that most of psychology's history was made by a dozen individuals, two dozen at the most. In Fig. 1, the curve is drawn through measures of eminence of 70 most outstanding names in the history of psychology ploned against their respective ranks. The manner in which the eminence measures were obtained is described by Zusne and Dailey (1982). Briefly, assuming that the number of pages an historian gives to an individual in a history text reflects the historian's opinion of how important or eminent that individual is, the mean number of pages, calculated as a percentage of the total number of pages, given an. individual by 16 authors of histories of psychology was taken as that individual's index of eminence. This measure was obtained for 697 deceased individuals and for B. F. Skinner. Of these, only the top 70 are represented in Fig. 1. They fully establish the shape of rhe curve. The remaining cases fall on an essentially straight line that is a continuation of the right-hand branch of the curve. This line eventually intersects the x axis. The curve is a hyperbola having the equation Y = 4.251.Y-'"8 + ,0001. The numbers involved are of no particular significance for the present purposes. What is significant is the distribution of cases along the curve. The line marked "midpoint of curve" passes through two points, the focal point of rhe hyperbola and its point of symmetry. The way the cases are thereby partitioned is anything but symmetrical, however: 11 (1.58%) in the upper branch of the curve, 687 ( 98.42%) in the lower branch. One way of interpreting this would be to say that, according to the 16 authors. the 11 individuals are as important to the history of psychology as the remaining 687 put together. Another, more liberal way of looking at the structure of eminence is to use the 50% point. The cumulative amount of space devoted to the individuals who are on the curve above this point is 50% of the total number of pages in the 16 texts. There are only 25 such individuals. They are the 11 whose names are given in Fig. 1 plus