Journal of Abnormal Psychology

The Journal of Abnormal Psychology addresses the following major areas of focus:

1. psychopathology (etiology, development, symptomatology, and the course)
2. normal processes in abnormal disorders
3. pathological or atypical features of behavior of normal individuals
4. experimental studies (with human or animal subjects) relating to the abnormal emotional behavior or pathology
5. sociocultural effects on pathological processes (gender, ethnicity)
6. tests of hypotheses from psychological theories that relate to abnormal behavior

History

Journal of Abnormal Psychology began publication in April 1906 under the ownership of Richard G. Badger of Boston and the editorship of Morton Prince. In 1921, the name was changed to the Journal of Abnormal Psychology and Social Psychology under the guiding assumption of the era that states of mind can only be judged to be "normal" or not against a background of the prevailing social norms of the particular time and place. In 1925, this was simplified to Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, the title it would go by for the next 40 years. Upon Prince's death in 1929, the journal was purchased by the American Psychological Association and the editorship fell to Henry T. Moore, the president of Skidmore College. In 1938, the prominent personality theorist Gordon W. Allport became the journal's editor. In 1965, the name reverted to simply the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, the same year that the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology began publication.