Chapter 4: The Replication Crisis
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
- describe what is meant by the “replicability crisis” in psychology
- describe some questionable research practices
- identify some ways in which scientific rigour may be increased
- understand the importance of openness in psychological science.
The replication of findings is a key characteristic of science. For a study’s results to be considered part of scientific knowledge, they must be replicable. This process helps to prevent false positive results (i.e., when you think something is true when it is actually false–a false alarm) and increases confidence in the validity of the findings.
As mentioned in the introduction of this book, the field of psychology is currently facing a replication crisis. In the era of instant news, the inability to replicate research raises serious concerns about the reliability of the scientific process. The public has a right to know if they can trust research evidence, and as psychologists, it’s in our best interest to ensure our methods and findings are trustworthy.
In this chapter, we will look at what we meant by the replicability crisis in psychology and what are the conditions that allowed for this to occur. Then, we will talk about potential solutions to this issue.
