Concerns about Replicability, Theorizing, Applicability, Generalizability, and Methodology across Two Crises in Social Psychology

Abstract

Twice in the history of social psychology has there been a crisis of confidence. The first started in the 1960s and lasted until the end of the 1970s, and the second crisis dominated the 2010s. In both these crises, researchers discussed fundamental concerns about the replicability of findings, the strength of theories in the field, the societal relevance of research, the generalizability of effects, and problematic methodological and statistical practices. On the basis of extensive quotes drawn from articles published during both crises, I explore the similarities and differences in discussions across both crises in social psychology.

Dwa głosy o kryzysie wiarygodności w psychologii

“…Trudności w replikowaniu wyników (Ioannidis, 2005;Open Science Collaboration, 2015), ograniczenia ich generalizowalności (Yorkoni, 2022) oraz niedostatki teorii psychologicznych (Eronen i Bringmann, 2021;Oberauer i Lewandowsky, 2019) doprowadziły do podważenia wiarygodności badań i ogłoszenia stanu kryzysu. Choć wiele z identyfikowanych współcześnie problemów nie jest niczym nowym -na podobieństwa pomiędzy obecnym kryzysem a dyskusjami toczonymi w psychologii społecznej w latach 60. i 70. wskazuje Lakens (2023), a testowanie istotności hipotez zerowych krytykowano już w latach 30. ubiegłego wieku, czyli zanim zadomowiło się ono w psychologii (Cohen, 1994 -to obecny kryzys wyróżnia powszechność świadomości problemów oraz obecność procedur i praktyk naprawczych. Owa odmienność związana jest częściowo z rozwojem technologicznym, jak np.…”

Two Voices on the Credibility Crisis in Psychology

“…Challenges in replicating results (Ioannidis, 2005;Open Science Collaboration, 2015), limitations in their generalizability (Yorkoni, 2022), and deficiencies in psychological theories (Eronen & Bringmann, 2021;Oberauer & Lewandowsky, 2019) have led to questioning the credibility of research and declaring a state of crisis. While many of the identified contemporary problems are not entirely new -similarities between the current crisis and debates in social psychology in the 1960s and 1970s are pointed out by Lakens (2023), and criticism of testing null hypotheses dates back to the 1930s, before it became established in psychology (Cohen, 1994) -the present crisis is distinguished by the widespread awareness of the issues and the presence of corrective procedures and practices. This distinctiveness is partially linked to technological development, such as the emergence of platforms enabling preregistration of studies, data, and analysis codes (e.g., OSF, Zenodo, GitHub) or document formats facilitating result reproducibility (e.g., R Markdown, Quarto).…”