What’s still wrong with psychology, anyway? Twenty slow years, three old issues, and one new methodology for improving psychological research.

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Master of Arts
Publisher
University of Canterbury. Psychology
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2011
Authors
Woods, Bradley Dean
Abstract

Recent retrospectives of classic psychology articles by Meehl (1978) and Wachtel (1980), concerning problems with psychology’s research paradigm, have been viewed by commentators, on the whole, as germane as when first published. However, no similar examination of Lykken’s (1991) classic criticisms of psychology’s dominant research tradition has been undertaken. Twenty years on, this thesis investigates whether Lykken’s criticisms and conclusions are still valid via an exposition of three contentious issues in psychological science: the measurement problem, null hypothesis significance testing, and the granularity of research methods. Though finding that little progress has been made, Observation Oriented Modelling is advanced as a promising methodological solution for improving psychological research.

Description
Citation
Keywords
research methods, null hypothesis significance testing, psychological measurement, intraindividual variation, interindividual variation, observation oriented modelling
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Rights
Copyright Bradley Dean Woods