Christopher Green

Faculty & School/Dept.

Faculty of Health - Department of Psychology

Degrees

PhD - 1992
University of Toronto
Psychology

PhD - 2004
University of Toronto
Philosophy

Biography

Raised in California and Québec, Dr. Green did his MA in the psychology of art at Simon Fraser U. Then he did a PhD in cognitive science (connectionist models of logical reasoning) at U Toronto. He later did a PhD in the philosophy of science, also at U Toronto. His  research topics include the early history of American psychology (ca. 1870-1920) and the (mis-)use of statistical analysis by psychologists since WWI. Work in these two areas has recently taken on a digital character (e.g., using computer programs to find interesting patterns in large databases of historical materials). See "Current Research" below for more detail. 

Selected Publications

• Bazar, J. L. & Green, C. D. (2022). How Canada’s first psychology department arose at McGill University. Canadian Psychology, 62 (1), 149.160.


• Green, C. D. (2021). Perhaps psychology’s replication crisis is a theoretical crisis that is only masquerading as a statistical one. International Review of Theoretical Psychologies, 1 (2).


• Green, C. D. (2021). Teaching the history of psychology. Canadian Psychology, 62 (4), 400-408. 


• Green, C. D. (2019). Psychology and its cities: A new history of early American psychology. New York, NY: Routledge.


• Green, C. D., et al. (2018). Statcheck in Canada: What proportion of CPA journal articles contain errors in the reporting of p-Values? Canadian Psychology, 59. [2018 Canadian Psychology Article of the Year.]


• Green, C. D. & Cautin, R. L. (2017). 125 years of the American Psychological Association. American Psychologist, 72,722-736. 


• Green, C. D. & Martin, S. M. (2017). Historical impact in psychology differs between demographic groups. New Ideas in Psychology, 47, 24-32. 


• Green, C. D. (2017). Publish and perish: Psychology’s most prolific authors are not always the ones we remember. American Journal of Psychology, 130,105-119.


• Green, C. D. (2015). Why psychology isn’t unified, and probably never will be. Review of General Psychology, 19, 207-214.


• Green, C. D. & Feinerer, I. (2015). The evolution of the American Journal of Psychology, 1887-1903:  A network investigation. American Journal of Psychology, 128, 387-401. 


• Green, C. D. & Benjamin Jr., L. T. (Eds.) (2009). Psychology gets into the game: Sport, mind, and behavior, 1880-1960. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press.


• Green, C. D. & Groff, P. R. (2003). Early psychological thought: Ancient accounts of the mind and soul. Westport, CT: Praeger.

 

Other Research Outputs

Green, C. D. (Producer/Writer/Director) (2007b). A school of their own: The history of American functionalist psychology. [Video documentary] 59 min. http://tinyurl.com/functionalism2

Green, C. D. (Producer/Writer/Director). (2005c). Toward a school of their own: The prehistory of American functionalist psychology [Video documentary]. 64 min. http://tinyurl.com/functionalism1

Green, C. D. (Producer/Writer/Director). (2003d). An academy in crisis: The hiring of James Mark Baldwin and James Gibson Hume at the University of Toronto in 1889 [Video documentary]. 40 min. http://tinyurl.com/academy-crisis

Affiliations

Cheiron: International Soceity for the History of Behavioral

American Psychological Association
Editor of the journal, History of Psychology.

Supervision

Currently available to supervise graduate students: Yes

Currently taking on work-study students, Graduate Assistants or Volunteers: No

Available to supervise undergraduate thesis projects: Yes

Current Research

 Psychologists have used statistical analysis intesively for the past 75 years. In the past decade, however, there has been increasing criticism of their statistical practices, culminating in the "replication crisis." Our laboratory team is currently using massive historical databases of academic articles to discover how those statistical practices unfolded over the decades. How have statistical practices differed among subdisciplines (social, developemental, cognitve, etc.)? Have some areas been more prone to questionable practices than others? How long have these questionable practices been common? With these studies, we hope to place the current "crisis" in context, finding out whether it is a new phenomenon, produced by recent academic pressures, or an old one dating back to the origins of psychologists' use of statistics. I am also interested in the history of popular psychology magazines and in the history of the psychology of arts and music.

Curriculum Vitae (C.V. file):

CV of Christopher Green