Reproducibility Project Essay

There is no crisis in the field of Psychology or Social Sciences research. In the past few years, there have been an increased number of retractions and fabrication incidents in the psychology and social sciences research, which caused speculations that these fields are currently in a crisis. Recently, an initiative called “Reproducibility Project” was conducted at the University of Virginia that reran 100 psychology experiments from three reputed psychology journals and stated that over 60% of the experiments failed to replicate (Barrett, 2014). Three famous studies that were cited numerous times and which form basis for many research studies, that failed to replicate in this project were Free will and cheating, Cleanliness and morality, and …show more content…
The replication studies were conducted in different conditions and contexts, and with different subjects. The reasons for variations in the results could be cultural differences, geographical locations, age groups etc. The material utilized in the original studies is outmoded and subjects were even manipulated in the certain situations. The original studies cannot be generalized to every situation or condition, as two experiments with same data can perform differently under separate conditions and environmental influences. Failure to replicate a study does not mean that the original experiment is bad, it leads to new discoveries that are valid in current conditions. Not completely comprehending the reproducibility project or misunderstanding the context, is also leading the society to believe there is a …show more content…
Replication studies were not famous for a long time, as researchers were conditioned to believe that they provided little to no use. Many journals even refused to publish replication studies as they did not provide new or fashionable results. As a part of the tenure process, educational researchers have to publish faster and newer results which did not encourage them to pursue replication studies. Marcus (2013) suggests that the reproducibility project is bringing a culture change in the field of psychology that emphasizes on replication studies. In order to make improvements to the psychology and social sciences, importance should not only be given to replication studies but also to the peer reviewing system, experimentation methods and tenure system for educational