Research
The Institute of Psychology (IoP) is one of the most scientifically advanced departments in University of Tartu.
Although psychology courses were taught in the University of Tartu starting from 1802, a true beginning for psychological science in Estonia was the arrival of Wilhelm Wundt's student Emil Kraepelin to Tartu/Dorpat in 1886. He established his Laboratory of Experimental Psychology in the same building (Näituse 2 or "New Anatomicum") where the IoP is currently residing.
Today, the IoP probably has the highest concentration of highly cited researchers in the University of Tartu – among the top twenty most cited there are five from the IoP (according to their Google Scholar profiles on March 14, 2019):
Risto Näätänen | 66 168 |
Jüri Allik | 18 194 |
Anu Realo | 11 034 |
Wolfgang Wagner | 7 946 |
Jaanus Harro | 7 908 |
According to the latest release (Match 14, 2019) of the Essential Science Indicators (ESI; Clarivate Analytics), University of Tartu is in the top 1% in 11 fields out of 22 into which all sciences (excluding humanities) are divided. PSYCHIATRY/PSYCHOLOGY is among 9 fields with an impact (cites per paper) of two times (111%) above the world mean level.
|
Research Fields |
Web of Science Documents |
Cites |
Cites/ |
Top Papers |
Relative to World (%) |
1 |
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY & GENETICS |
668 |
44,061 |
65.96 |
56 |
250.29 |
2 |
PSYCHIATRY/PSYCHOLOGY |
375 |
5,778 |
15.41 |
10 |
111.10 |
3 |
ENVIRONMENT/ECOLOGY |
1,324 |
31,353 |
23.68 |
33 |
80.49 |
4 |
BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY |
496 |
12,612 |
25.43 |
13 |
67.85 |
5 |
PHARMACOLOGY & TOXICOLOGY |
238 |
3,558 |
14.95 |
4 |
52.71 |
6 |
CLINICAL MEDICINE |
1,061 |
20,618 |
19.43 |
48 |
44.14 |
7 |
PLANT & ANIMAL SCIENCE |
1,554 |
27,176 |
17.49 |
42 |
36.32 |
8 |
NEUROSCIENCE & BEHAVIOR |
420 |
7,058 |
16.80 |
5 |
26.32 |
9 |
CHEMISTRY |
956 |
12,962 |
13.56 |
3 |
1.04 |
10 |
GEOSCIENCES |
525 |
6,316 |
12.03 |
6 |
-51.49 |
11 |
SOCIAL SCIENCES, GENERAL |
925 |
4,894 |
5.29 |
11 |
-58.80 |
0 |
ALL FIELDS |
11,331 |
208,933 |
18.44 |
320 |
43.61 |
Three researchers affiliated with IoP – Risto Näätänen, Jüri Allik ja Anu Realo – belong to the top 1% most cited researchers either in the categories of neuroscience and behavior or psychiatry/psychology.
Nine papers coauthored by the IoP researchers and published during the last ten years (2008-2019 October) are among the top 1% by their citations in their respective age cohort:
Duncan, C. C., Barry, R. J., Connolly, J. F., Fischer, C., Michie, P. T., Näätänen, R., . . . Van Petten, C. (2009). Event-related potentials in clinical research: Guidelines for eliciting, recording, and quantifying mismatch negativity, P300, and N400. Clinical Neurophysiology, 120(11), 1883-1908. doi:10.1016/j.clinph.2009.07.045 [487 cites]
Gelfand, M. J., Raver, J. L., Nishii, L., Leslie, L. M., Lun, J., Lim, B. C., …, Realo, A., … Yamaguchi, S. (2011). Differences Between Tight and Loose Cultures: A 33-Nation Study. Science, 332(6033), 1100-1104. doi:10.1126/science.1197754 [481 cites]
Schmitt, D. P., Realo, A., Voracek, M., & Allik, J. (2008). Why can't a man be more like a woman? Sex differences in big five personality traits across 55 cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(1), 168-182. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.94.1.168 [433 cites]
Rietveld, C. A., Medland, S. E., Derringer, J., Yang, J., Esko, T., Martin, N. W., Realo, A., …, Allik, J. … LifeLines Cohort, S. (2013). GWAS of 126,559 Individuals Identifies Genetic Variants Associated with Educational Attainment. Science, 340(6139), 1467-1471. doi:10.1126/science.1235488 [303 cites]
Näätänen, R., Kujala, T., & Winkler, I. (2011). Auditory processing that leads to conscious perception: A unique window to central auditory processing opened by the mismatch negativity and related responses. Psychophysiology, 48(1), 4-22. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2010.01114.x [227 cites]
Okbay, A., Baselmans, B. M. L., De Neve, J. E., Turley, P., Nivard, M. G., Fontana, M. A., … Realo, A., ... LifeLines Cohort, S. (2016). Genetic variants associated with subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism identified through genome-wide analyses. Nature Genetics, 48(6), 624-+. doi:10.1038/ng.3552 [166 cites]
Costantini, G., Epskamp, S., Borsboom, D., Perugini, M., Mõttus, R., Waldorp, L. J., & Cramer, A. O. J. (2015). State of the aRt personality research: A tutorial on network analysis of personality data in R. Journal of Research in Personality, 54, 13-29. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2014.07.003 [110 cites]
de Moor, M. H. M., van den Berg, S. M., Verweij, K. J. H., Krueger, R. F., Luciano, M., Vasquez, A. A., … Realo, A., …, Allik, J., …. Genetics Personality, C. (2015). Meta-analysis of Genome-wide Association Studies for Neuroticism, and the Polygenic Association With Major Depressive Disorder. Jama Psychiatry, 72(7), 642-650. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.0554 [95 cites]
Mõttus, R., Kandler, C., Bleidorn, W., & Riemann, R. (2017). Personality Traits Below Facets: The Consensual Validity, Longitudinal Stability, Heritability, and Utility of Personality Nuances. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112(3), 474-490. doi:10.1037/pspp0000100 [29 cites]
Anu Realo and Jüri Allik are elected to the Estonian Academy of Sciences. Risto Näätänen and Jüri Allik are also members of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters and Academia Europaea.
Estonian science in general has made an unprecedented progress during the last two decades. The psychological science made in the IoP is one of the driving forces of this progress.
Besides fundamental research, there's also some applied research being carried out. Professor Jaanus Harro and his group developed an intervention technique to reduce the impulsive behavior of beginner drivers in traffic used by the driving school chain Mercedes Benz Driving Academy in their U.S and Canadian branches.