Networking Western Psychology's Elite: A Digital Analysis of "A History of Psychology in Autobiography"

This thesis analyzes digital social networks for the institutional affiliations of the one hundred and twenty authors in the A History of Psychology in Autobiography (AHPA) book series. The introductory section contextualizes the analyses for the nine volumes in terms of the series’ historiographic foundations, socio-historical influences, and a history of the production of the first volume. It asserts that the series editors’ privileged disciplinary positions and the series’ unusual historiographic features render it an unusually precise internalist historical record of elite perspectives. The analytical chapter forwards the position that the AHPA networks illustrate the accuracy of Kurt Danziger’s (2006) historical premise of intellectual ‘centers’ and ‘peripheries’ in Western psychology’s disciplinary geography. The conclusion includes an assessment of the digital methods used, consideration of future directions, and a critical discussion of the AHPA series and how this thesis fits into a larger framework of ethical historiography.