Social psychology circa 2016: A field on steroids

Abstract

This paper considers the current state of the field in social psychology. On the one hand, we have made enormous progress in integrating our research with other disciplines, reaching out to general public and using our knowledge toward addressing major societal ills. On the other hand, social psychology has been recently mired in a crisis of confidence concerning the appropriateness of our methods and the robustness of our findings. We propose that shifting our attention to theory, method, and application, as well as away from a pervasive “outcome focus,” can extricate social psychology from its current doldrums and allow it to realize its potential as an indispensable social science.

Stereotype content of refugee subgroups in Germany

“…We want to emphasize that we do not wish to devalue the vast body of prior SCM literature that has contributed to the knowledge about social perception in important ways. On the contrary—we hope that our contribution helps the field to move forward; towards more robust, valid and authentic research demanded for in the light of the “crisis of confidence” in psychology (Kruglanski et al., , p. 1).…”

“…In the spirit of the “crisis of confidence” (Kruglanski, Chernikova, & Jasko, , p. 1) that has led researchers to question the appropriateness of the methods used and robustness of social psychological findings, we raise methodological concerns related to the extant SCM research. One major criticism is that most SCM research is based on the analysis of observed values (i.e., computed scale means), confounding the true scale score with measurement error (Kline, ).…”

Probing the history of social psychology, exploring diversity and views of the social: Publication trends in the European Journal of Social Psychology from 1971 to 2016

“…This might mean that social psychology has recently become more committed to the study of pressing social issues, and the EJSP publications seem to be responding by publishing those studies. This may in turn express responses both to trends affecting the discipline from the outside (e.g., encouragement through Horizon 2020 grants) and to calls from within the community (e.g., Kruglanski, Chernikova, & Jasko, 2017). These findings thus show a change since Fisch and Daniel (1982) underlined the lack of interest in social issues.…”

“…This may in turn express responses both to trends affecting the discipline from the outside (e.g., encouragement through Horizon 2020 grants) and to calls from within the community (e.g., Kruglanski, Chernikova, & Jasko, 2017). Groups, majorities, and minorities later became typical themes.…”

Les pratiques de recherche ouvertes en psychologie

“…Ces dernières années, il était difficile pour les chercheurs en psychologie de passer à côté de nombreuses discussions et réactions à ladite crise de la réplication en psychologie ( Asendorpf et al, 2013 ; Allard, 2018 ; Baker, 2016 ; Bastart, Klein, & IJzerman, 2018 ; Bègue, 2018 ; Chopik, Bremner, Defever, & Keller, 2018 ; Cursan, 2018 ; De Boeck & Jeon, 2018 ; Earp & Trafimow, 2015 ; Kruglanski, Chernikova, & Jasko, 2017 ; Maxwell, Lau, & Howard, 2015 ; Motyl et al, 2017 ; Pashler & Wagenmakers, 2012 ; Swiatkowski & Dompnier, 2017 ), c’est-à-dire la surprenante difficulté à réussir à répliquer des effets issus de publications scientifiques ( Doyen, Klein, Pichon, & Cleeremans, 2012 ; Harris, Coburn, Rohrer, & Pashler, 2013 ; Klein et al, 2014 ; Nosek & Lakens, 2014 ). Certains parlent également de « crise de confiance » ( Pashler & Wagenmakers, 2012 ).…”