Behavior Analysis's role in Psychology's methodology crises.

What is it about?

Psychology has a long history of using statistical inference in the form of null hypothesis statistical testing (NHST), which has led to various problems in the discipline in the form of publication bias, p-hacking, and irreproducible results. Behavior Analysis is a sub discipline of Psychology that tends to emphasize replications in its methods and may have therefore escaped the last of these problems. Some of its publication outlets progressively have been publishing studies using NHST, however, suggesting that Behavior Analysis may benefit from Psychology's current attempts to tackle these problems. This paper argues for participation of behavior analysts and describes ways in which both domains may benefit mutually in sharing their expertise and practices.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Just as behavior analysts could learn from the solutions being recommended for psychology's methodology crises, psychology can learn from the research approaches that promote replications in behavior analysis; it is incumbent on behavior analysts to engage.