Due to the increased number of retractions in the psychology journals and release of the news story of a famed social psychologist fabricating data leading to more than 50 retracted papers in the recent years, there has been a lot of speculation and criticism surrounding the fields of psychology and social sciences. In light of this, a newer initiative called the Reproducibility Project at the University of Virginia reran 100 psychology experiments that were published in three leading psychology journals; and found that the studies were hard to replicate and the results were far different from the original findings. This generated alarm and suspicions that the fields of psychology and social sciences are in the midst of a crisis. This report
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Carey (2015) published that most of psychological findings are not as strong as they are claimed, providing the example of the Reproducibility Project initiated by the University of Virginia which states that over 60% of the research studies retested did not produce findings that were significant or similar to the original research. Most of these studies were considered useful tools to comprehensively understand dynamics of personality, learning, relationships etc. for effective decision making by educators and therapists. However, this project does not provide any evidence that the original studies are false but indicate that there is possibility of debatable research practices. There are many supporting and opposing point of views related to this speculation as to whether or not the fields of psychology and social sciences are actually in the middle of a crisis …show more content…
The following are some of the suggestions to enhance the quality of the research studies conducted in the field of social psychology:
Baldwin (2014) considers the possibility of the peer review process for the scientific papers being broken and suggests that it is very crucial to the reliability and reputation of scientific research. A proper review process should be constructed involving peers as well as the senior researchers in the social psychology community. Schuman (2014) recommends that the research studies have to be revised through iterations and resubmitted to the journals to maintain accuracy and credibility. Barrett (2015) suggests that clear terminology and context is crucial to constructing better
Carey (2015) published that most of psychological findings are not as strong as they are claimed, providing the example of the Reproducibility Project initiated by the University of Virginia which states that over 60% of the research studies retested did not produce findings that were significant or similar to the original research. Most of these studies were considered useful tools to comprehensively understand dynamics of personality, learning, relationships etc. for effective decision making by educators and therapists. However, this project does not provide any evidence that the original studies are false but indicate that there is possibility of debatable research practices. There are many supporting and opposing point of views related to this speculation as to whether or not the fields of psychology and social sciences are actually in the middle of a crisis …show more content…
The following are some of the suggestions to enhance the quality of the research studies conducted in the field of social psychology:
Baldwin (2014) considers the possibility of the peer review process for the scientific papers being broken and suggests that it is very crucial to the reliability and reputation of scientific research. A proper review process should be constructed involving peers as well as the senior researchers in the social psychology community. Schuman (2014) recommends that the research studies have to be revised through iterations and resubmitted to the journals to maintain accuracy and credibility. Barrett (2015) suggests that clear terminology and context is crucial to constructing better