Psychology Atlas
Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists
have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which
expertise the answer needs.
These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows
only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where
the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the
hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither
one settles it alone.
Grouped by the field an answer needs. A question sitting between two disciplines appears under both, which is why the group counts add up to more than the number of questions.
Showing 21 to 34 of 34 open questions, page 2 of 2.
Not Yet Classified 34
Rat Park Experiment
Did later attempts to replicate the Rat Park experiment support Alexander's original findings?
Open Rat Park Experiment
Why It Is Open Bruce Petrie, a graduate student of Alexander's, attempted a replication correcting for methods issues in the originals and could not replicate the results. Subsequent researchers have shown little interest in replicating the studies further, citing methodological problems in the originals themselves: a small number of subjects, oral morphine dosing that does not mimic real use and introduces a bitterness confound, inconsistent measurement of morphine consumption between conditions, plus equipment failures, lost data and rat deaths.
What Would Settle It A modern, adequately powered replication using a consistent, non-oral dosing method and standardized morphine-consumption measurement across all housing conditions, addressing the equipment and data-loss problems that undermined the original series.
Expertise Needed Behavioral pharmacology and addiction research
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Rat Park.
Pygmalion in the Classroom
Did later studies replicate Rosenthal and Jacobson's original Pygmalion in the Classroom effect?
Open Pygmalion in the Classroom
Why It Is Open Rosenthal originally claimed the treated group's IQ gain exceeded the control group's by 24.8 points and that the gain was persistent and widespread, but the instrument used to assess the children's IQ was seriously flawed, and studies since the 1980s have repeatedly failed to replicate a strong effect, instead finding only a weak effect in a small minority of students (5 to 10 percent), one that resets after a period of weeks.
What Would Settle It A large, pre-registered classroom replication using a validated IQ instrument and blinded teacher-expectation manipulation, tracking effect persistence over a full school year rather than a period of weeks.
Expertise Needed Educational psychology and psychometrics
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Pygmalion Effect.
Overconfidence Effect
In what year was the overconfidence effect first identified or named as a distinct phenomenon in the psychological literature?
Open Overconfidence Effect
Why It Is Open The surveyed Wikipedia article names three component forms, overestimation, overplacement and overprecision, and cites many later studies, but states no founding study or coining year for the overconfidence effect itself, unlike the other five entities worked this pass which each name a clear year.
What Would Settle It A citation to the earliest peer-reviewed study or review naming and defining the overconfidence effect as a distinct phenomenon, rather than one of its three later-named component forms.
Expertise Needed history of psychology
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Overconfidence effect, no origin year stated in surveyed source.
Narrative Therapy
In what specific year should narrative therapy's founding be dated: 1983, when Michael White established the Dulwich Centre in Adelaide, or 1990, when White and David Epston published Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends, the book that brought the approach to wide attention?
Open Narrative Therapy
Why It Is Open Wikipedia's own Narrative therapy article states only that the approach was developed during the 1970s and 1980s by Michael White and David Epston, with no single founding year named; the Michael White biographical article separately dates the Dulwich Centre's founding to 1983 and the field-defining book to 1990, leaving which year properly marks the school's founding unresolved.
What Would Settle It A source that explicitly states which single year the discipline treats as narrative therapy's founding, or an explicit editorial convention here for dating an approach that developed gradually over two decades.
Expertise Needed history of psychotherapy
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Narrative therapy, History section.
Schema Therapy
In what year did Jeffrey E. Young first formulate schema therapy as a distinct approach?
Open Schema Therapy
Why It Is Open Wikipedia's Schema therapy article documents the approach's theoretical concepts, techniques and outcome studies in detail but names no year or founding publication for when Young first developed it; a Wikipedia page for Jeffrey E. Young himself does not exist to check further (fetched live this session, page missing).
What Would Settle It A source identifying the specific year or publication that the field treats as schema therapy's founding moment.
Expertise Needed history of psychotherapy
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Schema therapy, whole article, no founding date given.
Not Invented Here
In what year was the not invented here phenomenon first identified or named in management or organizational research?
Open Not Invented Here
Why It Is Open The surveyed Wikipedia article documents a 1982 empirical study (Katz and Allen) providing evidence for the syndrome, but states no year for when the phenomenon or term was first named or described.
What Would Settle It A citation to the earliest source naming or describing the not invented here syndrome, distinct from the 1982 Katz and Allen study already cited as empirical evidence.
Expertise Needed history of psychology
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Not invented here, no origin year stated in surveyed source.
Automation Bias
In what year was automation bias first identified or named as a distinct phenomenon in human factors research?
Open Automation Bias
Why It Is Open The surveyed Wikipedia article discusses automation bias research from 1997 onward (Mosier et al.) but states no year for when the phenomenon or term was first identified or named.
What Would Settle It A citation to the earliest peer-reviewed study or review naming and defining automation bias as a distinct phenomenon, prior to the 1997 Mosier et al. study already cited.
Expertise Needed history of psychology
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Automation bias, no origin year stated in surveyed source.
Psychosynthesis
In what specific year should psychosynthesis's founding be dated: 1910, when Roberto Assagioli began formulating the ideas, or 1927, when he first published them as a named system in the pamphlet A New Method of Healing: Psychosynthesis?
Open Psychosynthesis
Why It Is Open Wikipedia names two different years for two different events (1910, the start of Assagioli's thinking; 1927, the first publication of the named system) and does not say which one the field treats as the founding date.
What Would Settle It A history-of-psychotherapy source that states explicitly which of the two years, or a third year, the field itself treats as psychosynthesis's founding.
Expertise Needed history of psychotherapy
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Psychosynthesis, lead section, A New Method of Healing pamphlet.
Internal Family Systems Model
In what specific year did Richard C. Schwartz first develop the Internal Family Systems Model?
Open Internal Family Systems Model
Why It Is Open Wikipedia's History section states only that Schwartz developed the model "in the 1980s," with no single year given anywhere in the article.
What Would Settle It A biographical source or Schwartz's own account naming the specific year he began developing IFS, rather than the decade.
Expertise Needed history of psychotherapy
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Internal Family Systems Model, History section, IFS developed in the 1980s.
Default Effect
In what year was the default effect first described or named in the psychology or behavioral-economics literature?
Open Default Effect
Why It Is Open The English Wikipedia article on the default effect (the source already cited on this entity) describes the concept, its endogenous and exogenous forms and its applications in detail but names no year, paper or author for when it was first described or named; a full raw-extract read of the article (9384 characters) contains no four-digit year at all.
What Would Settle It A citable paper, textbook or reference work naming the year and author or authors who first described or coined the term for the default effect.
Expertise Needed behavioral economics
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Default effect.
Intentionality Bias
In what year was intentionality bias first described or named in the psychology literature?
Open Intentionality Bias
Why It Is Open The English Wikipedia article on intentionality bias (the source already cited on this entity) describes the concept in a short lead paragraph with an empty References section and names no year, paper, or author for when the bias was first described or named; a full raw-extract read of the article contains no four-digit year at all.
What Would Settle It A citable paper, textbook, or reference work naming the year and author or authors who first described or coined the term intentionality bias.
Expertise Needed history of psychology
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Intentionality bias, entire article, References section empty.
Selective Perception
In what year was selective perception first identified or named as a distinct concept in psychology?
Open Selective Perception
Why It Is Open The cited Wikipedia article traces the concept only to Gestalt psychology in the early 20th century and says it attracted more scholarly attention in the mid 20th century, naming Leon Festinger 1957 cognitive dissonance theory as a later explanatory milestone, but it gives no specific year for when selective perception itself was first described or named.
What Would Settle It A citable primary source, textbook, or history-of-psychology reference naming the specific year or publication that first used or defined the term selective perception.
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Selective perception, Wikipedia: Selective perception, History section.
Zero-Risk Bias
In what year was zero-risk bias first described or named as a distinct concept?
Open Zero-Risk Bias
Why It Is Open The cited Wikipedia article cites Baron, Gowda and Kunreuther (1993) and Viscusi, Magat and Huber (1987) as early studies documenting the effect, and an economics study by Kunreuther (1991), but does not state in what year the bias itself was first named or described, and the 1987 study title does not use the term.
What Would Settle It A citable source naming the specific year or publication where the term zero-risk bias was first coined.
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Zero-risk bias, Wikipedia: Zero-risk bias, Explanation section.
Present Bias
In what year was the term present bias first introduced?
Open Present Bias
Why It Is Open The cited Wikipedia article states only that the term was not introduced until the 1950s and separately notes that Phelps and Pollak introduced the quasi-hyperbolic model in 1968, without giving a specific year or publication for when present bias itself was first named.
What Would Settle It A citable source naming the specific year and publication that first used the term present bias.
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Present bias, Wikipedia: Present bias, History section.