Ian J. Davidson

Areas of Interests

History of Psychology
Self & Identity
Research Methods and Statistics

Research and Interests

Taking psychology itself as a historical-cultural process, I’m often researching how we have come to view ourselves in the specific ways we currently do, and how this is connected to questions of science, politics, economics, justice, popular culture, and meaning-making. I have broad interests in the cultural and disciplinary history of psychology, especially in topics like personality testing and traits, quantitative methods, “scientific” racism and colonialism, and the various ways our focus on work has affected us. I’m also always interested in learning and teaching the many theories of self, identity, and subjectivity found across the human sciences and the humanities.

ORCID page
Google Scholar page

Courses Taught

PSY 311 – Intermediate Statistics
PSY 319 – Research Designs and Intermediate Statistical Methods
PSY 405 – Special Topics in Psychology: History and Theory of Psychology
PSY 409 – Special Topics: Self, Identity, & Subjectivity
PSY 480/1 – Independent Study
PSY 875 – History of Psychology [PsyD Graduate Level]

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles

• Davidson, I. J. (2025). The guise of the gentleman scholar: Criticism and conduct around J. Philippe Rushton’s general factor of personality. Theory & Psychology, 35(4), 401–421. https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543251355470
• Davidson, I. J. (2025). Well-being at the cost of welfare: Learned helplessness and responsibility in positive psychology and American policy. History of the Human Sciences, 09526951251336898. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951251336898
• Davidson, I. J. (2023). Building on racism: The Porteus Hall controversy at the University of Hawai‘i. American Psychologist, 78(8), 955–967
• Flake, J. K, Davidson, I. J., Wong, O., & Pek, J. (2022). Construct validity and the validity of replication studies: A systematic review. American Psychologist 77(4), 576-588. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001006
• Davidson, I. J. (2021). Reconsidering Paul Meehl’s disciplinary legacy. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 15(7), e12623. doi: 10.1111/spc3.12623
• Flake, J. K., Davidson, I. J., & Pek, J. (2020). Is methodological research moving into practice? The critical role of formal methodological training. In Teaching Statistics and Quantitative Methods in the 21st Century (pp. 70–86). Routledge.
• Davidson, I. J. (2018). The (ab)normal-social-personality catena: Exploring the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology during the inter-war years. History of Psychology, 21 (2), 151-171. doi: 10.1037/hop0000090.
• Davidson, I. J. (2018). The ouroboros of psychological methodology: The case of effect sizes (mechanical objectivity vs. expertise). Review of General Psychology 22(4), 469-476. doi: 10.1037/gpr0000154
• Green, C. D., Abbas, S., Belliveau, A., Beribisky, N., Davidson, I. J., DiGiovanni, J.,Heidari, C., Martin, S. M., Oosenbrug, E., & Wainewright, L. M. (2018). Statcheck in Canada: What proportion of CPA journal articles contain errors in the reporting of p-values? Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 59(3), 203.
• Davidson, I. J. (2017). The ambivert: A failed attempt at a normal personality. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 53(4), 313–331. doi: 10.1002/jhbs.21868
• Pettit, M., & Davidson, I. J. (2014). Can the history of psychology have an impact? Theory & Psychology, 24 (5), 709–716. doi: 10.1177/0959354314534005
• Davidson, I. J. (2025). The guise of the gentleman scholar: Criticism and conduct around J. Philippe Rushton’s general factor of personality. Theory & Psychology, 35(4), 401–421. https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543251355470
• Davidson, I. J. (2025). Well-being at the cost of welfare: Learned helplessness and responsibility in positive psychology and American policy. History of the Human Sciences, 09526951251336898. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951251336898

Book Chapters and Book Reviews

• Davidson, I. J. (2024). Model citizens [Book review of Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B. Calhoun by Jon Adams and Edmund Ramsden, Melville House, 2024. 384 pp.]. Science, 385(6715), 1282–1282. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adr5922
• Flake, J. K, Davidson, I. J., & Pek, J. (2020). Is methods research moving into practice? The critical role of quantitative training. In J.L. Rodgers (Ed.), Teaching Statistics and Quantitative Methods into the 21^st century. Taylor & Francis.
• Davidson, I. J. (2020). [Book review of How we became our data: A genealogy of the informational person by C. Koopman]. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences.
• Davidson, I. J. (2019). [Book review of The personality brokers: The strange history of Myers-Briggs and the birth of personality testing by M. Emre]. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 55 (2), 164-166. doi: 10.1002/jhbs.21966
• Davidson, I. J. (2017). [Book review of Validating psychological constructs: Historical, philosophical, and practical dimensions by K. Slaney]. Psychometrika, 83 (1), 272-274. doi: 10.1007/s11336-017-9589-2
• Davidson, I. J. (2024). Model citizens [Book review of Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B. Calhoun by Jon Adams and Edmund Ramsden, Melville House, 2024. 384 pp.]. Science, 385(6715), 1282–1282. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adr5922