Magazine?s methods for ranking graduate schools are arbitrary and unscientific say psychology departments

Disgruntled with the survey methodology used in U.S. News & World Report?s annual rankings of graduate departments, many graduate psychology departments opted not to return their surveys for this year?s rankings.

Calling the survey unscientific and arbitrary because it uses ratings of school?s reputations rather than quantitative measures, psychologists throughout the country moved to boycott it. Many of them aired their opposition on a listserv operated by the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology (COGDOP).

'It?s a bunch of opinions, that?s all,' says David Scott Hargrove, PhD, chair of a dissenting psychology department at the University of Mississippi. 'They ask people what they think are the best departments, but there aren?t any clear-cut criteria.'

In addition to psychology, U.S. News ranks graduate departments in such fields as business, law, medicine and education. Educational psychology is grouped with the education school rankings, which use more rigorous methodology than the psychology rankings.

By comparison, the psychology part of the survey merely requires psychology department chairs and directors of graduate studies to rank psychology departments overall and in the areas of clinical, counseling, school, industrial/organizational, experimental and developmental psychology. This approach glosses over other specialties in psychology and simply reflects departments? pre-existing positive and negative halos, says Raymond Lorion, PhD, chair of the psychology department at Ohio University.

'It?s also unclear how representative the survey is,' says Lorion. 'Places that participate will probably be rated highest.'

Lorion?s department is among the two-thirds of psychology departments that decided not to participate. Of the 430 surveys the magazine sent out, only 142 were returned. Participation was comparatively low the last time U.S. News surveyed psychology departments in 1995. In fact, psychology has the lowest response rate of all fields included in the survey, says Robert Morse, the magazine?s director of research.

Some psychology chairs called for a formal boycott of the rankings at the COGDOP meeting in February. The organization decided instead to leave that choice to departments, but most of those present clearly opposed the rankings, said Sheldon Zedeck, PhD, chair of COGDOP and the psychology department at the University of California?Berkeley.

'Most departments consider the ranking a meaningless popularity contest,' says Zedeck. His department also opted not to participate, but was nevertheless ranked second.

Psychology isn?t the only field objecting to the survey. The Association of American Law Schools also questioned the survey methodology in a recently released report. And, in a letter it sent to 93,000 law school applicants, the association urged them to 'minimize the influence of rankings' on their law school choices. The U.S. News survey of psychology departments might be better supported if it added more quantitative dimensions, says Lorion. The magazine could, for example, consider the number of faculty members, grants and doctorates produced?measures included in a more highly respected ranking of doctoral programs released by the National Research Council in 1995.

Morse says U.S. News may consider incorporating such measures if they are readily collectible.

U.S. News & World Report released its 1998 rankings of psychology departments in late February. Educational psychology rankings appear in the magazine in the section on schools of education. Complete psychology rankings are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/home.htm and in the U.S. News publication, 'America?s Best Graduate Schools.'