Psychological Science Under Scrutiny Recent Challenges and Proposed Solutions

Psychological Science Under Scrutiny explores a range of contemporary challenges to the assumptions and methodologies of psychology, in order to encourage debate and ground the discipline in solid science. 

• Discusses the pointed challenges posed by critics to the field of psychological research, which have given pause to psychological researchers across a broad spectrum of sub-fields
• Argues that those conducting psychological research need to fundamentally change the way they think about data and results, in order to ensure that psychology has a firm basis in empirical science
• Places the recent challenges discussed into a broad historical and conceptual perspective, and considers their implications for the future of psychological methodology and research
• Challenges discussed include confirmation bias, the effects of grant pressure, false-positive findings, overestimating the efficacy of medications, and high correlations in functional brain imaging
• Chapters are authored by internationally recognized experts in their fields, and are written with a minimum of specialized terminology to ensure accessibility to students and lay readers

Scott O. Lilienfeld is Professor of Psychology at Emory University. His principal areas of research are personality disorders, psychiatric classification and diagnosis, pseudoscience in mental health, and the teaching of psychology. He is the author or co-author of numerous publications including 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology (Wiley, 2009), and is co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology (Wiley, 2015). 

Irwin D. Waldman is Professor of Psychology at Emory University. His research centers on the classification, development, and etiology of children’s psychiatric disorders and behavior problems, social behavior and social cognition, and temperament and personality. He is the author of numerous articles within leading journals in the field, and is an Associate Editor of the journal Behavioral Genetics. 

List of Contributors vii

Introduction: Psychological Science in Perspective x

Part I Cross‐Cutting Challenges to Psychological Science 1

1 Maximizing the Reproducibility of Your Research 3
Open Science Collaboration

2 Powering Reproducible Research 22
Katherine S. Button and Marcus R. Munafò

3 Psychological Science’s Aversion to the Null, and Why Many of the Things You Think Are True, Aren’t 34
Moritz Heene and Christopher J. Ferguson

4 False Negatives 53
Klaus Fiedler and Malte Schott

5 Toward Transparent Reporting of Psychological Science 73
Etienne P. LeBel and Leslie K. John

6 Decline Effects: Types, Mechanisms, and Personal Reflections 85
John Protzko and Jonathan W. Schooler

7 Reverse Inference 108
Joachim I. Krueger

8 The Need for Bayesian Hypothesis Testing in Psychological Science 123
Eric‐Jan Wagenmakers, Josine Verhagen, Alexander Ly, Dora Matzke, Helen Steingroever, Jeffrey N. Rouder, and Richard D. Morey

Part II Domain‐Specific Challenges to Psychological Science 139

9 The (Partial but) Real Crisis in Social Psychology: A Social Influence Analysis of the Causes and Solutions 141
Anthony R. Pratkanis

10 Popularity as a Poor Proxy for Utility: The Case of Implicit Prejudice 164
Gregory Mitchell and Philip E. Tetlock

11 Suspiciously High Correlations in Brain Imaging Research 196
Edward Vul and Harold Pashler

12 Critical Issues in Genetic Association Studies 221
Elizabeth Prom‐Wormley, Amy Adkins, Irwin D. Waldman, and Danielle Dick

13 Is the Efficacy of “Antidepressant” Medications Overrated? 250
Brett J. Deacon and Glen I. Spielmans

14 Pitfalls in Parapsychological Research 271
Ray Hyman

Part III Psychological and Institutional Obstacles to High‐Quality Psychological Science 295

15 Blind Analysis as a Correction for Confirmatory Bias in Physics and in Psychology 297
Robert J. MacCoun and Saul Perlmutter

16 Allegiance Effects in Clinical Psychology Research and Practice 323
Marcus T. Boccaccini, David Marcus, and Daniel C. Murrie

17 We Can Do Better than Fads 340
Robert J. Sternberg

Afterword: Crisis? What Crisis? 349
Paul Bloom

Index 356