Replication, falsification, and the crisis of confidence in social psychology

Associative Learning Processes in the Formation of Intergroup Anxiety and Avoidance in Society

Laboratory-based aversive conditioning studies have reliably induced fear toward an image of an outgroup member by pairing the image with a fear-inducing, aversive stimulus. However, laboratory-based studies have been criticized for being simplistic in comparison to the complexities of the real world. The current study is the first to apply an aversive conditioning framework to explain the formation of intergroup fear and subsequent anxiety toward, and avoidance of, the outgroup outside the laboratory. Two samples recalled details of their first negative encounter with an African American (N = 554) or Muslim (N = 613) individual, respectively. Congruent with learning theory, participants who reported an unpleasant event with an outgroup member reported more fear during the encounter than did those who did not report experiencing an unpleasant event. Additionally, the intensity of unpleasantness during the first encounter indirectly predicted outgroup avoidance, via retrospectively recalled fear and current levels of intergroup anxiety.

Time to Throw in the Towel? No Evidence for Automatic Conceptual Metaphor Access in Idiom Processing

The goal of the current research was to determine if conceptual metaphors are activated when people read idioms within a text. Participants read passages that included idioms that were consistent (blow your top) or inconsistent (bite his head off) with an underlying conceptual metaphor (ANGER IS HEATED FLUID IN A CONTAINER) followed by target words that were related (heat) or unrelated (lead) to the conceptual metaphor. Reading time (Experiment 1) or lexical decision time (Experiment 2) for the target words were measured. We found no evidence supporting conceptual metaphor activation. Target word reading times were unaffected by whether they were related or unrelated to underlying conceptual metaphors. Lexical decision times were facilitated for related target words in both the consistent and inconsistent idiom conditions. We suggest that the conceptual (target) domain, not a specific underlying conceptual metaphor, facilitates processing of related target words.

Changing research culture toward more use of replication research: a narrative review of barriers and strategies

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this paper is to review the literature on barriers to conducting replication research and strategies to increase its use and promotion by researchers, editors, and funders.

STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING

This review was part of a larger meta-narrative review aimed at conducting a concept analysis of replication and developing a replication research framework. A combination of systematic and snowball search strategies was used to identify relevant literature in multiple research fields. Data were coded and analyzed using the Theoretical Domains Framework for barriers to replication and the behavior change wheel for solutions.

RESULTS

In total, 153 papers were included in this narrative review. Multiple barriers limit the use of replication research by researchers, editors, and funders. Many of the barriers were related to knowledge and skills of all these actors. Social influences and the research environmental context were also described as not supportive. Multiple strategies were proposed to create positive outcomes expectations, reinforcement, and structural changes in the physical and social context of research.

CONCLUSION

A social change involving advisory groups, research organizations, and institutions is required to establish new norms that will value, promote, support, and reward replication research.

Replication and the Establishment of Scientific Truth

The idea of replication is based on the premise that there are empirical regularities or universal laws to be replicated and verified, and the scientific method is adequate for doing it. Scientific truth, however, is not absolute but relative to time, context, and the method used. Time and context are inextricably intertwined in that time (e.g., Christmas Day vs. New Year's Day) creates different contexts for behaviors and contexts create different experiences of time, rendering psychological phenomena inherently variable. This means that internal and external conditions fluctuate and are different in a replication study vs. the original. Thus, a replication experiment is just another empirical investigation in an ongoing effort to establish scientific truth. Neither the original nor a replication is the final arbiter of whether or not something exists. Discovered patterns need not be permanent laws of human behavior proven by the pinpoint statistical verification through replication. To move forward, phenomenon replications are needed to investigate phenomena in different ways, forms, contexts, and times. Such investigations look at phenomena not just in terms the magnitude of their effects but also by their frequency, duration, and intensity in labs and real life. They will also shed light on the extent to which lab manipulations may make many phenomena subjectively conscious events and effects (e.g., causal attributions) when they are nonconsciously experienced in real life, or vice versa. As scientific knowledge in physics is temporary and incomplete, should it be any surprise that science can only provide "temporary winners" for psychological knowledge of human behavior?

Replicability in psychological research: a reflection

Background: In recent years, psychological science has suffered a crisis of confidence that has been marked by the low rate of replicability demonstrated in collaborative projects that attempted to quantify this problem, evidencing the difficulty in making replications and the existence of a possible excess of false positives published in the scientific literature. Method: This opinion article aimed to review the panorama of the replicability crisis in psychology, as well as its possible causes. Conclusions: It began from the state of the replicability crisis, then some possible causes and their repercussions on the advancement of psychological science were highlighted, discussing various associated issues, such as individual biases on the part of researchers, the lack of incentives to replicability studies and the priority standards that journals would currently have for novel and positive studies. Finally, the existing alternatives to reverse this situation are mentioned, among them the opening to new statistical approaches, the restructuring of incentives, and the development of editorial policies that facilitate the means for replication.

Comprehensive meta-analysis of resilience interventions

BACKGROUND/RATIONALE

There is no current consensus on operational definitions of resilience. Instead, researchers often debate the optimal approach to understanding resilience, while continuing to explore ways to enhance and/or promote its qualities in various populations. The goal of the current meta-analysis is to substantiate existing evidence examining the promotion of resilience through various interventions. Particular emphasis was placed upon the factors that contribute to variability across interventions, such as age, gender, duration of intervention, intervention approaches and risk exposure of targeted population.

METHOD

The literature search was conducted on May 28, 2019. Search terms included "resilience intervention" OR "promoting resilience" OR "promoting resiliency" OR "resilience-based intervention". A total of 268 studies, with 1584 independent samples, were included in the meta-analysis. In addition to overall efficacy, outcome-based analyses were conducted for intervention outcomes based on action, biophysical, coping, emotion, resilience, symptoms, and well-being. Finally, moderators of age, gender, length of intervention, intervention approach, intervention target, and the level of risk exposure of the sampled population were examined as moderators.

RESULTS

The multi-level meta-analysis indicated that resilience-promoting interventions yielded a small, but statistically significant overall effect, Hedges's g = 0.48 (SE = 0.04, 95% CI = [0.40, 0.56]. The variability in study effect sizes within and between studies was significant, p < .001, with many falling short of the threshold for practical significance.

DISCUSSION

Findings lend some support for the overall efficacy of resilience interventions. However, empirical results should be cautiously interpreted in tandem with their theoretical relevance and potential advancements to the construct of resilience. Variabilities across findings reflect the current ambiguities surrounding the conceptualization and operationalization of resilience. Directions for future research on resilience as well as practical considerations are discussed.

Validity of Cognitive Tests for Non-human Animals: Pitfalls and Prospects

Comparative psychology assesses cognitive abilities and capacities of non-human animals and humans. Based on performance differences and similarities in various species in cognitive tests, it is inferred how their minds work and reconstructed how cognition might have evolved. Critically, such species comparisons are only valid and meaningful if the tasks truly capture individual and inter-specific variation in cognitive abilities rather than contextual variables that might affect task performance. Unlike in human test psychology, however, cognitive tasks for non-human primates (and most other animals) have been rarely evaluated regarding their measurement validity. We review recent studies that address how non-cognitive factors affect performance in a set of commonly used cognitive tasks, and if cognitive tests truly measure individual variation in cognitive abilities. We find that individual differences in emotional and motivational factors primarily affect performance via attention. Hence, it is crucial to systematically control for attention during cognitive tasks to obtain valid and reliable results. Aspects of test design, however, can also have a substantial effect on cognitive performance. We conclude that non-cognitive factors are a minor source of measurement error if acknowledged and properly controlled for. It is essential, however, to validate and eventually re-design several primate cognition tasks in order to ascertain that they capture the cognitive abilities they were designed to measure. This will provide a more solid base for future cognitive comparisons within primates but also across a wider range of non-human animal species.

Language Bias in Health Research: External Factors That Influence Latent Language Patterns

Background: Concerns with problematic research are primarily attributed to statistics and methods used to support data. Language, as an extended component of problematic research in published work, is rarely given the same attention despite language's equally important role in shaping the discussion and framings of presented data. Purpose: This study uses a topic modeling approach to study language as a predictor of potential bias among collected publication histories of several health research areas. Methods: We applied Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic models to dissect publication histories disaggregated by three factors commonly cited as language influencers: (1) time, to study ADHD pharmacotherapy; (2) funding source, to study sugar consumption; and (3) nation of origin, to study Pediatric Highly-Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (P-HAART). Results: We found that, for each factor, there were notable differences in language among each corpus when disaggregated by each factor. For time, article content changed to reflect new trends and research practices for the commonly prescribed ADHD medication, Ritalin. For funding source, industry and federally funded studies had differing foci, despite testing the same hypothesis. For nation of origin, regulatory structures between the United States and Europe seemingly influenced the direction of research. Conclusion: This work presents two contributions to ethics research: (1) language and language framing should be studied as carefully as numeric data among studies of rigor, reproducibility, and transparency; and (2) the scientific community should continue to apply topic models as mediums to answer hypothesis-driven research questions.

Passion for Work and Well-Being of Working Adults

The purpose of the present study was to extend a study by Yukhymenko-Lescroart and Sharma (2019,“The Relationship Between Faculty Members’ Passion for Work and Well-Being”) to test the relationship between passion for work and well-being using a completely independent and much more heterogeneous sample of full-time working adults representing a wide variety of professions. Participants, who were recruited through the Amazon’s Mechanical Turk website, completed several scales ( N = 297, 55.2% female, median age = 34 years), and the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. In line with our hypotheses, results showed that harmonious passion for work contributed positively to life satisfaction, subjective happiness, awareness of purpose, altruistic purpose, and awakening to the purpose. Additionally, obsessive passion for work contributed positively to altruistic purpose and awakening to the purpose. However, the results did not support the hypothesis that obsessive passion for work contributed to the awareness of purpose.

Replication Research Series-Paper 1 : A concept analysis and meta-narrative review established a comprehensive theoretical definition of replication research to improve its use

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study is to clarify the concept of replication research to improve its appropriate use by researchers, editors, research funders, and decision makers.

STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING

We combined concept analysis and metanarrative review methods to synthetize knowledge on replication research from various scientific fields. We used multiple search strategies to identify the relevant literature published before April 2018. We summarized the data by seeking commonalities and differences in underlying conceptual and theoretical assumptions in the literature.

RESULTS

A total of 153 articles from various disciplines were included. The analysis led to the identification of three major definitions of replication: the repetition of a previous study, the extension of a previous study, and the road-testing of a theory. Attributes, conditions required to conduct replication studies, concerns related to the interpretation of replication studies, and diverse replication research typologies were synthesized, combined, and analyzed. Based on this metanarrative review, a comprehensive theoretical definition of replication research was formulated.

CONCLUSION

This study can support the adoption of a shared understanding and recognition of the indispensable nature of replication research for the sound development of knowledge in all research fields.

Effects of 4 Weeks of Active Exergames Training on Muscular Fitness in Elderly Women

Gallardo-Meza, C, Simon, K, Bustamante-Ara, N, Ramirez-Campillo, R, García-Pinillos, F, Keogh, JWL, and Izquierdo, M. Effects of 4 weeks of active exergames training on muscular fitness in elderly women. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2020-To analyze the effects of 4 weeks of an active exergames training program on muscular fitness in older women, 2 groups of community dwelling physically active subjects were formed by block-design randomization. One was deemed the control group (CG, n = 37; age 68.1 ± 3.3 years), and a second group completed 4 weeks of an active exergames training program (ExG, n = 35; age, 69.2 ± 3.7 years). Training included active exergames (Wii Fit Plus) performed on the Wii Balanceboard, 2 sessions per week. The exergames required mainly balance-related movements, such as leaning forward, leftward, and rightward, also requiring isometric squat positions and explosive leg extension. A supervisor-to-subject ratio method of 2:1 was used. An intensity-based individual progressive overload was applied. There were no significant (all p > 0.05, d = 0.01-0.07) baseline differences between-groups for all dependent variables. For the ExG, significant improvements were observed in static balance right leg test (Δ75.5%, d = 0.89), static balance left leg (Δ33.7%, d = 0.57), timed up-and-go test (Δ14.8%, d = 0.85) and sit-to-stand velocity test (Δ83.8%, d = 1.62). For the control group, trivial to small decrements in performance were observed across all tests (Δ -2.1 to -8.4%, d = -0.08 to 0.32). Group × time interactions were observed for the static balance right and left leg, timed up-and-go test, and the mean velocity achieved in the 5-repetition sit-to-stand test (all p < 0.001; d = 0.33-0.60). In conclusion, exergames training improves muscular fitness in older women. These results should be considered when designing appropriate and better exercise training programs for older women.

What Is the Difference? Rereading Shakespeare's Sonnets -An Eye Tracking Study

Texts are often reread in everyday life, but most studies of rereading have been based on expository texts, not on literary ones such as poems, though literary texts may be reread more often than others. To correct this bias, the present study is based on two of Shakespeare's sonnets. Eye movements were recorded, as participants read a sonnet then read it again after a few minutes. After each reading, comprehension and appreciation were measured with the help of a questionnaire. In general, compared to the first reading, rereading improved the fluency of reading (shorter total reading times, shorter regression times, and lower fixation probability) and the depth of comprehension. Contrary to the other rereading studies using literary texts, no increase in appreciation was apparent. Moreover, results from a predictive modeling analysis showed that readers' eye movements were determined by the same critical psycholinguistic features throughout the two sessions. Apparently, even in the case of poetry, the eye movement control in reading is determined mainly by surface features of the text, unaffected by repetition.

No relationship between researcher impact and replication effect: an analysis of five studies with 100 replications

What explanation is there when teams of researchers are unable to successfully replicate already established 'canonical' findings? One suggestion that has been put forward, but left largely untested, is that those researchers who fail to replicate prior studies are of low 'expertise and diligence' and lack the skill necessary to successfully replicate the conditions of the original experiment. Here we examine the replication success of 100 scientists of differing 'expertise and diligence' who attempted to replicate five different studies. Using a bibliometric tool (h-index) as our indicator of researcher 'expertise and diligence', we examine whether this was predictive of replication success. Although there was substantial variability in replication success and in the h-factor of the investigators, we find no relationship between these variables. The present results provide no evidence for the hypothesis that systematic replications fail because of low 'expertise and diligence' among replicators.

The Use of Research Methods in Psychological Research: A Systematised Review

Research methods play an imperative role in research quality as well as educating young researchers, however, the application thereof is unclear which can be detrimental to the field of psychology. Therefore, this systematised review aimed to determine what research methods are being used, how these methods are being used and for what topics in the field. Our review of 999 articles from five journals over a period of 5 years indicated that psychology research is conducted in 10 topics via predominantly quantitative research methods. Of these 10 topics, social psychology was the most popular. The remainder of the conducted methodology is described. It was also found that articles lacked rigour and transparency in the used methodology which has implications for replicability. In conclusion this article, provides an overview of all reported methodologies used in a sample of psychology journals. It highlights the popularity and application of methods and designs throughout the article sample as well as an unexpected lack of rigour with regard to most aspects of methodology. Possible sample bias should be considered when interpreting the results of this study. It is recommended that future research should utilise the results of this study to determine the possible impact on the field of psychology as a science and to further investigation into the use of research methods. Results should prompt the following future research into: a lack or rigour and its implication on replication, the use of certain methods above others, publication bias and choice of sampling method.

Featured Article: Gender Bias in Pediatric Pain Assessment

OBJECTIVE

Accurate assessment of pain is central to diagnosis and treatment in healthcare, especially in pediatrics. However, few studies have examined potential biases in adult observer ratings of children's pain. Cohen, Cobb, & Martin (2014. Gender biases in adult ratings of pediatric pain. Children's Health Care, 43, 87-95) reported that adult participants rated a child undergoing a medical procedure as feeling more pain when the child was described as a boy as compared to a girl, suggesting a possible gender bias. To confirm, clarify, and extend this finding, we conducted a replication experiment and follow-up study examining the role of explicit gender stereotypes in shaping such asymmetric judgments.

METHODS

In an independent, pre-registered, direct replication and extension study with open data and materials (https://osf.io/t73c4/), we showed participants the same video from Cohen et al. (2014), with the child described as a boy or a girl depending on condition. We then asked adults to rate how much pain the child experienced and displayed, how typical the child was in these respects, and how much they agreed with explicit gender stereotypes concerning pain response in boys versus girls.

RESULTS

Similar to Cohen et al. (2014), but with a larger and more demographically diverse sample, we found that the "boy" was rated as experiencing more pain than the "girl" despite identical clinical circumstances and identical pain behavior across conditions. Controlling for explicit gender stereotypes eliminated the effect.

CONCLUSIONS

Explicit gender stereotypes-for example, that boys are more stoic or girls are more emotive-may bias adult assessment of children's pain.

Measuring objectification through the Body Inversion Paradigm: Methodological issues

Objectification occurs when a person is perceived and/or treated like an object. With the present work, we overview the available measures of objectification and present a series of studies aimed at investigating the validity of the task of inverted body recognition proposed by Bernard and colleagues (2012), which might potentially be a useful cognitive measure of objectification. We conducted three studies. Study 1 (N = 101) is a direct replication of Bernard et al.'s study: participants were presented with the same photos of sexualized male and female targets used in the original research. Study 2a (N = 100) is a conceptual replication: we used different images of scantily dressed male and female models. Finally, in Study 2b (N = 100), we investigated a boundary condition by presenting to participants photos of the same models as in Study 2a, but fully dressed and non-sexualized. Using mixed-effects models for completely-crossed classified data structures, we investigated the relationship between the inversion effect and the stimulus' asymmetry, sexualization and attractiveness, and the perceivers' self-objectification, sexism, and automatic woman-human association. Study 1 replicated the original results, showing a stronger inversion effect for male photos. However, no difference between male and female stimuli emerged in either Study 2a or 2b. Moreover, the impact of the other variables on the inversion effect was highly unstable across the studies. These aspects together indicate that the inversion effect depends on the specific set of stimuli and limits the generalizability of results collected using this method.

The Detrimental Effect of Sexual Objectification on Targets' and Perpetrators' Sexual Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Sexual Coercion

Sexual objectification is a variable to consider for understanding the sexual violence that takes place into intimate context. The set of studies presented here aims to connect sexual objectification phenomena with sexual coercion and explore the consequences that both have on sexual satisfaction. Two studies examined the association between sexual objectification and sexual satisfaction for both views: female target (Study 1) and male perpetrator (Study 2) perspectives. The results of the first study (n = 138 heterosexual women) demonstrated that perceiving partner objectification (but not reporting general sexual objectification victimization) is indirectly linked to a lower sexual satisfaction because of lower rejection and higher sexual coercion rates. The second study (n = 136 heterosexual men) showed the indirect effect of partner objectification and general sexual objectification perpetration on sexual satisfaction after sexual coercion perpetration. Results of both studies demonstrated the negative consequences that sexual objectification has on sexual satisfaction for both male perpetrators and female targets.

Language Bias in Health Research: External Factors That Influence Latent Language Patterns

Background: Concerns with problematic research are primarily attributed to statistics and methods used to support data. Language, as an extended component of problematic research in published work, is rarely given the same attention despite language's equally important role in shaping the discussion and framings of presented data. Purpose: This study uses a topic modeling approach to study language as a predictor of potential bias among collected publication histories of several health research areas. Methods: We applied Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic models to dissect publication histories disaggregated by three factors commonly cited as language influencers: (1) time, to study ADHD pharmacotherapy; (2) funding source, to study sugar consumption; and (3) nation of origin, to study Pediatric Highly-Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (P-HAART). Results: We found that, for each factor, there were notable differences in language among each corpus when disaggregated by each factor. For time, article content changed to reflect new trends and research practices for the commonly prescribed ADHD medication, Ritalin. For funding source, industry and federally funded studies had differing foci, despite testing the same hypothesis. For nation of origin, regulatory structures between the United States and Europe seemingly influenced the direction of research. Conclusion: This work presents two contributions to ethics research: (1) language and language framing should be studied as carefully as numeric data among studies of rigor, reproducibility, and transparency; and (2) the scientific community should continue to apply topic models as mediums to answer hypothesis-driven research questions.

Parents' observed responses to children's emotional distress: Relations with social competence in preschool

Although affective interactions in the family are important for development, home observational data are sparse. We replicated and extended one such study, Roberts & Strayer (1987, Developmental Psychology, 23, 415). Interactions in 33 two-parent families (mean child age = 4.8 years; 48% girls) were observed for four evenings, from suppertime until the child settled for the night. Parents completed the Child Rearing Practices Q-sort. Peer interactions and friendship networks in preschool were observed over four days. Teachers and observers completed the Preschool Behavior Q-Sort. Based on Q-rated peer competence and aggression, three expected groups of children were identified, one of them high on both aggression and peer competence. Although socially active and accepted by peers, they were, compared with other children, less cooperative with adults, less prosocial with peers, more impulsive, less achievement oriented, less purposive, and less happy (mean η²  = .52). Parenting, especially observed impatience, threats, and use of force when children were emotionally distressed, showed important differences across groups.

The Impact of Non-Standard Work Arrangements and Communication Climate on Organisational and Team Identification and Work-Related Outcomes Amongst Millennials in Chile and the UK

Previous research has found inconsistent results on the impact of work-status (permanent vs. fixed term vs. causal work) on attitudinal and behavioural outcomes. This study explored this topic from a social identity perspective and examines the effect of communication climate, organisational and team identification on job-affective well-being, organisational commitment and intentions to recommend. In Study 1, 631 professionals working in Chile completed our survey. In Study 2, which was pre-registered, 520 professionals from the UK completed the same survey. In both studies we conducted multi-group path analyses comparing employees with three work-statuses: permanent, fixed-term, and casual workers (Study 1: n = 369, 129, and 131, respectively; Study 2: n = 438, 53, and 34, respectively). We found work-status influenced the relationship between organisational and team identification with job-affective well-being, but not with organisational citizenship behaviour or intentions to recommend. Across all groups, communication climate was an important predictor for identification measures, job-affective well-being and intention to recommend. These findings offer an understanding of the dynamics of social identification in the workplace that are related to work-status in the context of two different countries; Chile, a country that is characterised by high rates of fixed-term and casual job agreement and the UK, which has comparatively fewer non-standard work-arrangements.

Understanding Replication: Trust But Verify

Replication as a pillar of science is described in the context of the replication crisis that first struck psychology but spread quickly to other science-based fields. Empirical evidence suggests that the crisis is real but not well understood. We explain why replication often fails in science and how research in home health can be strengthened by a greater understanding of the value of replication and current thinking about replication success or failure decisions. We conclude with a call for replication in home health nursing that couples original research and replication in the same report.

Gritty, hardy, resilient, and socially supported: A replication study

BACKGROUND

The present study adds to the knowledge base in positive psychology and disability sport psychology by replicating and extending the research of Martin, Byrd, Watts, and Dent (2015).

OBJECTIVES

In the current study we replicated previous findings by predicting life quality and sport engagement using measures of grit, hardiness, and resilience. We also extended the work of Martin et al. (2015) by examining athlete social support.

METHODS

Eighty-seven adult (80 men, 7 women) wheelchair rugby athletes with various disabilities (e.g., amputee) participated in the current study. They completed questionnaires at rugby tournaments or on-line assessing grit, hardiness, resilience, social support and life satisfaction and sport engagement.

RESULTS

Overall, the regression equation predicting life satisfaction was significant, F (4, 81) = 9.67, p < .00, accounting for thirty-two percent of the variance. One variable, resilience, contributed unique meaningful variance as indicated by its significant beta weight (β = 0.46, p < .001). The regression analyses predicting sport engagement was also significant, F (4, 81) = 12.08, p < .001, and predicted 37% of the variance. Grit (β = 0.21, p < .05), social support (β = 0.25, p < .01), resilience (β = 0.23, p < .05), and hardiness (β = 0.27, p < .05) were all significant predictors.

CONCLUSION

Athletes reporting high levels of resilience reported the highest quality of life. Athletes reporting high levels of grit, resilience, hardiness, and social support were the most engaged in their sport. We also partially replicated the work of Martin et al. (2015).

(Re)Introducing Vygotsky's Thought: From Historical Overview to Contemporary Psychology

Theories formulated by Russian psychologist and educator Lev Vygotsky currently range from being applied and celebrated across multiple contexts to be considered outdated. In this paper, we maintain that such inconsistency in application stems from the overreliance on translated or reformulated Vygotskian theories, the attempts to understand these ideas in isolation from the scientific historical context of their development, and the impact of Vygotsky's personal life circumstances on the development of his scholarship. It is known that Vygotsky's untimely death prevented him from elaborating on his theoretical views and expanding his early empirical work. We suggest that Vygotsky's scholarship could be better understood in light of the core principles that transcend all aspects of his work. In this paper, we elaborate on two such core principles: theories of language development and their relation to the integrated systemic approach to psychological development. We argue that although linguistic and historical boundaries have shaped the common perception of Vygotskian theories in anglophone research in a specific way, there is a potential for a renewed application of these theories to modern psychology that might be especially relevant in light of the increasingly interdisciplinary character of the modern science. To support our argument, we provide a brief overview and examples of potential connections between Vygotsky's scholarship with contemporary landscape in psychological science. The paper presents a brief introduction to the topic of Vygotskian work and its application to modern psychology, rather than an addition to the field of Vygotskian scholarship. It is geared toward non-Vygotskian scholars and invites researchers working in interdisciplinary areas of psychology.

Phenomenon-driven research and systematic research assembling: Methodological conceptualisations for psychology’s epistemic projects

This article contributes to psychology’s epistemic project by proposing a methodology that foregrounds the relation between research methods and subject matter. Considering method-driven and subject-driven approaches as being opposite poles of a continuum, the science of psychology has historically tended toward emphasising one or the other. Method-driven approaches claim legitimacy through an emphasis on a unifying standardised method, while subject-driven approaches insist on human-centred conceptions of psychology’s subject matter. Both poles are accompanied by one-sided methods-to-matter relations which limit the ways in which phenomena can be known in surprising and unforeseen ways. Phenomenon-driven research conceptualises the engagement with methods and matter as mutually intra-acting. Systematic research assembling points to the practical crafting of research activities through ongoing engagement with how phenomena can be known through intra-action. In our time of particularly unsettled, changing, and complex phenomena, psychology’s epistemic projects need methodologies that aim at ways of knowing that can bring out the unexpected.

Screen Recordings as a Tool to Document Computer Assisted Data Collection Procedures

Recently in psychological science and many related fields, a surprisingly large amount of experiments could not be replicated by independent researchers. A non-replication could indicate that a previous finding might have been a false positive statistical result and the effect does not exist. However, it could also mean that a specific detail of the experimental procedure is essential for the effect to emerge, which might not have been included in the replication attempt. Therefore any replication attempt that does not replicate the original effect is most informative when the original procedure is closely adhered to. One proposed solution to facilitate the empirical reproducibility of the experimental procedures in psychology is to upload the experimental script and materials to a public repository. However, we believe that merely providing the materials of an experimental procedure is not sufficient, as many software solutions are not freely available, software solutions might change, and it is time consuming to set up the procedure. We argue that there is a simple solution to these problems when an experiment is conducted using computers: recording an example procedure with a screen capture software and providing the video in an online repository. We therefore provide a brief tutorial on screen recordings using an open source screen recording software. With this information, individual researchers should be able to record their experimental procedures and we hope to facilitate the use of screen recordings in computer assisted data collection procedures.

Replication of Study 1 in “Differentiating Social and Personal Power” by Lammers, Stoker, and Stapel (2009)

Abstract. We performed an independent, direct, and better powered ( N = 295) replication of Study 1, an experiment ( N = 113) by Lammers, Stoker, and Stapel (2009) . Lammers and colleagues distinguished between social power (influence over others) and personal power (freedom from the influence of others), and found support for their predictions that the two forms of power produce opposite effects on stereotyping, but parallel effects on behavioral approach. Our results did not replicate the effects on behavioral approach, but partially replicated the effects on stereotyping. Compared to personal power, social power produced less stereotyping, but neither form of power differed significantly from the control condition, and effect sizes were considerably lower than the original estimates. Potential explanations are discussed.

Eating Competent Parents of 4th Grade Youth from a Predominantly Non-Hispanic White Sample Demonstrate More Healthful Eating Behaviors than Non-Eating Competent Parents

The purpose of this study was to determine if the associations between eating competence (EC) and eating behaviors that were found in a USA sample of predominantly Hispanic parents of 4th grade youth could be replicated in a USA sample of predominantly non-Hispanic white parents of 4th graders. Baseline responses from parents (n = 424; 94% white) of youth participating in a year-long educational intervention were collected using an online survey. Validated measures included the Satter Eating Competence Inventory (ecSI 2.0^TM), in-home fruit/vegetable (FV) availability, healthful eating behavior modeling, and FV self-efficacy/outcome expectancies (SE/OE). Data were analyzed with general linear modeling and cluster analyses. The findings replicated those from the primarily Hispanic sample. Of the 408 completing all ecSI 2.0^TM items, 86% were female, 65% had a 4-year degree or higher, and 53% were EC (ecSI 2.0^TM score ≥ 32). Compared with non-EC parents, EC modeled more healthful eating, higher FV SE/OE, and more in-home FV availability. Behaviors clustered into those striving toward more healthful practices (strivers; n = 151) and those achieving them (thrivers; n = 255). Striver ecSI 2.0^TM scores were lower than those of thrivers (29.6 ± 7.8 vs. 33.7 ± 7.6; p < 0.001). More EC parents demonstrated eating behaviors associated with childhood obesity prevention than non-EC parents, encouraging education that fosters parent EC, especially in tandem with youth nutrition education.

On reproducibility and replicability: Arguing for open science practices and methodological improvements at the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology

Problematisation: In recent years, psychology has been going through a crisis of sorts. Research methods and practices have come under increased scrutiny, with many issues identified as negatively contributing to low replicability and reproducibility of psychological research.Implications: As a consequence, researchers are increasingly called upon to overhaul and improve their research process. Various stakeholders within the scientific community are arguing for more openness and rigor within industrial and organisational (I-O) psychological research. A lack of transparency and openness further fuels criticisms as to the credibility and trustworthiness of I-O psychology which negatively affects the evidence-based practices which it supports. Furthermore, traditional gate-keepers such as grant agencies, professional societies and journals, are adapting their policies, reflecting an effort to curtail these trends.Purpose: The purpose of this opinion paper is, therefore, to stimulate an open dialogue with the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology (SAJIP) contributing authors, its editorial board and readership about the challenges associated with the replication crisis in psychology. Furthermore, it attempts to discuss how the identified issues affect I-O psychology and how these could be managed through open science practices and other structural improvements within the SAJIP.Recommendations: We enumerate several easily implementable open science practices, methodological improvements and editorial policy enhancements to enhance credibility and transparency within the SAJIP. Relying on these, we recommend changes to the current practices that can be taken up by researchers and the SAJIP to improve reproducibility and replicability in I-O psychological science.

Pragmatic considerations for fostering reproducible research in artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence and deep learning methods hold great promise in the medical sciences in areas such as enhanced tumor identification from radiographic images, and natural language processing to extract complex information from electronic health records. Scientific review of AI algorithms has involved reproducibility, in which investigators share protocols, raw data, and programming codes. Within the realm of medicine, reproducibility introduces important challenges, including risk to patient privacy, challenges in reproducing results, and questions regarding ownership and financial value of large medical datasets. Scientific review, however, mandates some form of resolution of these inherent conflicts. We propose several approaches to permit scientific review while maintaining patient privacy and data confidentiality.

Interhemispheric communication and the preference for attitude consistent information

The current study investigated the role of interhemispheric communication in selective exposure to information. Participants (N = 241) reported their attitude and attitude strength toward a controversial social topic, engaged in a selective exposure task, and completed the Poffenberger paradigm. As expected, participants demonstrated a moderate (d = 0.50) preference for attitude consistent information on the selective exposure task and attitude strength was a significant predictor of participants' information search tendencies. Furthermore, faster right-to-left interhemispheric transfer was also significantly associated with an increased preference for attitude consistent information. These findings highlight the potential role of the right hemispheric processes in the detection of cognitive inconsistency and in the implementation of dissonance reduction strategies.

Addiction, Identity, Morality

Background: Recent literature on addiction and judgments about the characteristics of agents has focused on the implications of adopting a “brain disease” versus “moral weakness” model of addiction. Typically, such judgments have to do with what capacities an agent has (e.g., the ability to abstain from substance use). Much less work, however, has been conducted on the relationship between addiction and judgments about an agent’s identity, including whether or to what extent an individual is seen as the same person after becoming addicted. Methods: We conducted a series of vignette-based experiments (total N = 3,620) to assess lay attitudes concerning addiction and identity persistence, systematically manipulating key characteristics of agents and their drug of addiction. Conclusions: In Study 1, we found that U.S. participants judged an agent who became addicted to drugs as being closer to “a completely different person” than “completely the same person” as the agent who existed prior to the addiction. In Studies 2–6, we investigated the intuitive basis for this result, finding that lay judgments of altered identity as a consequence of drug use and addiction are driven primarily by perceived negative changes in the moral character of drug users, who are seen as having deviated from their good true selves.

Stereotype Threat Reduces the Positivity of Older Adults' Recall

OBJECTIVES

As people get older, they show a relative preference to remember positive information over negative information. In two experiments, we tested whether the positivity of older adults' memory is affected by stereotype threat about age-related cognitive declines. We also tested whether highlighting a positive aging stereotype (older adults are wise) would inoculate older adults from stereotype threat's adverse effects.

METHOD

In Experiments 1 and 2, we manipulated whether stereotypes about age-related cognitive decline were highlighted (stereotype threat) or mitigated (stereotype alleviation). In Experiment 2, we included a third condition (intervention + stereotype threat), which highlighted positive and negative aging stereotypes. Participants then saw emotionally evocative pictures and completed a memory test.

RESULTS

In both experiments, stereotype threat selectively reduced older adults' memory for positive pictures but did not affect their memory for negative pictures. This eliminated the positivity effect (i.e., the Age × Valence interaction; Experiment 1). Our positive stereotype intervention did not reduce stereotype threat's adverse effect (Experiment 2).

DISCUSSION

Our findings show that the positivity effect is more robust when testing situations minimize stereotype threat. They also suggest that health interventions designed to capitalize on the positivity effect should ensure that ageist stereotypes are mitigated in the environment.

Putting Popper to work

In response to what are seen as fundamental problems in Psychology, a reform movement has emerged that finds inspiration in philosophy of science, the work of Karl Popper in particular. The reformers attempt to put Popper into practice and create a discipline based on the principles of critical rationalism. In this article I describe the concrete sociotechnical practices by which the reformers attempt to realise their ideals, and I argue that they go a long way towards bridging the gap between rules and practice that sociologists of science Mulkay and Gilbert had identified in their study of the role of Popper’s philosophy in the work of scientists. Second, I note the considerable resistance that the reformers meet and the disruptive force of their work. I argue that this disruption is productive and raises fundamental questions regarding psychology and its object of study.

Walking the Plank: An Experimental Paradigm to Investigate Safety Voice

The investigation of people raising or withholding safety concerns, termed safety voice, has relied on report-based methodologies, with few experiments. Generalisable findings have been limited because: the behavioural nature of safety voice is rarely operationalised; the reliance on memory and recall has well-established biases; and determining causality requires experimentation. Across three studies, we introduce, evaluate and make available the first experimental paradigm for studying safety voice: the “Walking the plank” paradigm. This paradigm presents participants with an apparent hazard (walking across a weak wooden plank) to elicit safety voice behaviours, and it addresses the methodological shortfalls of report-based methodologies. Study 1 (n = 129) demonstrated that the paradigm can elicit observable safety voice behaviours in a safe, controlled and randomised laboratory environment. Study 2 (n = 69) indicated it is possible to elicit safety silence for a single hazard when safety concerns are assessed and alternative ways to address the hazard are absent. Study 3 (n = 75) revealed that manipulating risk perceptions results in changes to safety voice behaviours. We propose a distinction between two independent dimensions (concerned-unconcerned and voice-silence) which yields a 2 × 2 safety voice typology. Demonstrating the need for experimental investigations of safety voice, the results found a consistent mismatch between self-reported and observed safety voice. The discussion examines insights on conceptualising and operationalising safety voice behaviours in relationship to safety concerns, and suggests new areas for research: replicating empirical studies, understanding the behavioural nature of safety voice, clarifying the personal relevance of physical harm, and integrating safety voice with other harm-prevention behaviours. Our article adds to the conceptual strength of the safety voice literature and provides a methodology and typology for experimentally examining people raising safety concerns.

Replication Research, Publication Bias, and Applied Behavior Analysis

The "replication crisis" describes recent difficulties in replicating studies in various scientific fields, most notably psychology. The available evidence primarily documents replication failures for group research designs. However, we argue that contingencies of publication bias that led to the "replication crisis" also operate on applied behavior analysis (ABA) researchers who use single-case research designs (SCRD). This bias strongly favors publication of SCRD studies that show strong experimental effect, and disfavors publication of studies that show less robust effect. The resulting research literature may unjustifiably inflate confidence about intervention effects, limit researchers' ability to delineate intervention boundary conditions, and diminish the credibility of our science. To counter problems of publication bias in ABA, we recommend that journals that publish SCRD research establish journal standards for publication of noneffect studies; that our research community adopt open sharing of SCRD protocols and data; and that members of our community routinely publish systematic literature reviews that include gray (i.e., unpublished) research.

An Overview of Scientific Reproducibility: Consideration of Relevant Issues for Behavior Science/Analysis

For over a decade, the failure to reproduce findings in several disciplines, including the biomedical, behavioral, and social sciences, have led some authors to claim that there is a so-called "replication (or reproducibility) crisis" in those disciplines. The current article examines: (a) various aspects of the reproducibility of scientific studies, including definitions of reproducibility; (b) published concerns about reproducibility in the scientific literature and public press; (c) variables involved in assessing the success of attempts to reproduce a study; (d) suggested factors responsible for reproducibility failures; (e) types of validity of experimental studies and threats to validity as they relate to reproducibility; and (f) evidence for threats to reproducibility in the behavior science/analysis literature. Suggestions for improving the reproducibility of studies in behavior science and analysis are described throughout.

Distinguishing differential susceptibility, diathesis-stress, and vantage sensitivity: Beyond the single gene and environment model

Currently, two main approaches exist to distinguish differential susceptibility from diathesis-stress and vantage sensitivity in Genotype × Environment interaction (G × E) research: regions of significance (RoS) and competitive-confirmatory approaches. Each is limited by its single-gene/single-environment foci given that most phenotypes are the product of multiple interacting genetic and environmental factors. We thus addressed these two concerns in a recently developed R package (LEGIT) for constructing G × E interaction models with latent genetic and environmental scores using alternating optimization. Herein we test, by means of computer simulation, diverse G × E models in the context of both single and multiple genes and environments. Results indicate that the RoS and competitive-confirmatory approaches were highly accurate when the sample size was large, whereas the latter performed better in small samples and for small effect sizes. The competitive-confirmatory approach generally had good accuracy (a) when effect size was moderate and N ≥ 500 and (b) when effect size was large and N ≥ 250, whereas RoS performed poorly. Computational tools to determine the type of G × E of multiple genes and environments are provided as extensions in our LEGIT R package.

Replicability and replication in the humanities

A large number of scientists and several news platforms have, over the last few years, been speaking of a replication crisis in various academic disciplines, especially the biomedical and social sciences. This paper answers the novel question of whether we should also pursue replication in the humanities. First, I create more conceptual clarity by defining, in addition to the term "humanities," various key terms in the debate on replication, such as "reproduction" and "replicability." In doing so, I pay attention to what is supposed to be the object of replication: certain studies, particular inferences, of specific results. After that, I spell out three reasons for thinking that replication in the humanities is not possible and argue that they are unconvincing. Subsequently, I give a more detailed case for thinking that replication in the humanities is possible. Finally, I explain why such replication in the humanities is not only possible, but also desirable.