Eleven Years of Psychological Researches in Pakistan (1995-2006): What Titles Reveal About Pakistani Research

Abstract

This study analysed the themes of researches published in Pakistan. For the purpose, Pakistan Journal of Psychology (PJP) was selected as a representative of Pakistan’s research in the discipline of psychology. Researches published during 1995 to 2006 were selected for this study. This study analyses the titles of the papers. Titles of 94 studies from 1995 to 2006 were analysed. Some 302 key concepts were extracted from the titles and categorized in following categories: clinical psychology/psychotherapy (25.82 %), cognitive psychology (7.61%), psychometrics (7.28%), gender studies (7.28%), experimental psychology (5.96%), personality psychology (5.96%), industrial/occupational psychology(5.62), nations/nationalities (5.29%), developmental psychology (4.30%), social psychology (3.97%), education/educational psychology (3.64%), parenting (3.64%), emotions and their expression (3.31%), physical health/illness (3.31%), marriage/family life (2.98 %) ethics/ religion (1.32 %), stress and coping (1.32 %), positive psychology (0.66%) and occult sciences (0.66%). There were no mentions of evolutionary psychology, aesthetics, forensic psychology, health psychology, neuropsychology, political psychology, media psychology, humanism and Gestalt psychology. Sex and its psychological aspects were also not present. Mentions of stress and coping, religion and ethics were negligible. The character of psychological research in the sampled researches and their implications were discussed.