From discovery to justification : Outline of an ideal research program in empirical psychology
Witte, Erich H. and Zenker, Frank LU
(2017)
In Frontiers in Psychology
8(OCT).
- Abstract
The gold standard for an empirical science is the replicability of its research results. But the estimated average replicability rate of key-effects that top-tier psychology journals report falls between 36 and 39% (objective vs. subjective rate; Open Science Collaboration, 2015). So the standard mode of applying null-hypothesis significance testing (NHST) fails to adequately separate stable from random effects. Therefore, NHST does not fully convince as a statistical inference strategy. We argue that the replicability crisis is "home-made" because more sophisticated strategies can deliver results the successful replication of which is sufficiently probable. Thus, we can overcome the replicability crisis by integrating empirical results... (More)
The gold standard for an empirical science is the replicability of its research results. But the estimated average replicability rate of key-effects that top-tier psychology journals report falls between 36 and 39% (objective vs. subjective rate; Open Science Collaboration, 2015). So the standard mode of applying null-hypothesis significance testing (NHST) fails to adequately separate stable from random effects. Therefore, NHST does not fully convince as a statistical inference strategy. We argue that the replicability crisis is "home-made" because more sophisticated strategies can deliver results the successful replication of which is sufficiently probable. Thus, we can overcome the replicability crisis by integrating empirical results into genuine research programs. Instead of continuing to narrowly evaluate only the stability of data against random fluctuations (discovery context), such programs evaluate rival hypotheses against stable data (justification context).
(Less)
- author
- Witte, Erich H.
and Zenker, Frank
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017-10-27
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Confirmation, Knowledge accumulation, Meta-analysis, Psi-hypothesis, Replicability crisis, Research programs, Significance-test, Test-power
- in
- Frontiers in Psychology
- volume
- 8
- issue
- OCT
- article number
- 1847
- publisher
- Frontiers Media S. A.
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000413802900001
- pmid:29163256
- scopus:85032586300
- ISSN
- 1664-1078
- DOI
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01847
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 7b4de5b6-8553-4fd7-837f-5d91c6d57579
- date added to LUP
- 2017-11-07 13:22:43
- date last changed
- 2024-04-14 21:52:18
@article{7b4de5b6-8553-4fd7-837f-5d91c6d57579,
abstract = {{<p>The gold standard for an empirical science is the replicability of its research results. But the estimated average replicability rate of key-effects that top-tier psychology journals report falls between 36 and 39% (objective vs. subjective rate; Open Science Collaboration, 2015). So the standard mode of applying null-hypothesis significance testing (NHST) fails to adequately separate stable from random effects. Therefore, NHST does not fully convince as a statistical inference strategy. We argue that the replicability crisis is "home-made" because more sophisticated strategies can deliver results the successful replication of which is sufficiently probable. Thus, we can overcome the replicability crisis by integrating empirical results into genuine research programs. Instead of continuing to narrowly evaluate only the stability of data against random fluctuations (discovery context), such programs evaluate rival hypotheses against stable data (justification context).</p>}},
author = {{Witte, Erich H. and Zenker, Frank}},
issn = {{1664-1078}},
keywords = {{Confirmation; Knowledge accumulation; Meta-analysis; Psi-hypothesis; Replicability crisis; Research programs; Significance-test; Test-power}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{10}},
number = {{OCT}},
publisher = {{Frontiers Media S. A.}},
series = {{Frontiers in Psychology}},
title = {{From discovery to justification : Outline of an ideal research program in empirical psychology}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01847}},
doi = {{10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01847}},
volume = {{8}},
year = {{2017}},
}