| Abstract: | With use of several indices of distinction, the biographies of selected samples of psychologists were examined to determine which educational institutions produced a disproportionate number of those alumni who recently have occupied positions of eminence in the field. Unlike other investigations that have attempted to rank departments of psychology on the basis of the quality of their current faculties, the present study focused on the doctoral and baccalaureate origins of prominent psychologists rather than on the institutions where they now reside. In general, it was found that among well established psychology programs, the same few universities tend to have produced more than their share of doctoral students who made significant career contributions to the field, although the precise rank ordering varied according to the particular index of distinction employed. With notable exceptions, the higher ranking graduate programs were also the undergraduate alma maters of a significant proportion of this same generation of scholars. |
