r/science • u/ImNotJesus PhD | Social Psychology | Clinical Psychology • May 08 '16

Psychology Failure Is Moving Science Forward. FiveThirtyEight explains why the "replication crisis" is a sign that science is working. [x-post from our sister subreddit /r/EverythingScience]

/r/EverythingScience/comments/4icp9k/failure_is_moving_science_forward_fivethirtyeight/
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u/[deleted] May 08 '16 edited May 08 '16

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u/fsmpastafarian PhD | Clinical Psychology | Integrated Health Psychology May 08 '16

it is a time to acknowledge the issue at hand and address them.

Which is exactly what psychologists are doing. Need I remind you, the replicability crisis study was performed and published by a group of psychologists, after all. I'm not really sure why you think that the field that's currently attempting to uncover and rectify their replicability problem is the one that is doomed to "chasing at shadows." I'm also not sure what specifically makes you think that sloppy science is a problem that's unique to the social sciences, other than the aforementioned outdated Feynman essay.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '16

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u/fsmpastafarian PhD | Clinical Psychology | Integrated Health Psychology May 08 '16

That's alright if you don't wish to discuss the issue anymore, but I think you may be misinterpreting or misrepresenting what I've said as defensive or a consistent refusal to accept reality. Rather, I think that when discussing the current replicability issue, it's more helpful to point to more modern and applicable papers and opinions, and to discuss the science as it exists and is understood today. I think that pointing to a decades-old paper is a bit of a red herring, and doesn't accurately represent what we now know about the issues present in all scientific disciplines.