Statistical significance in psychological research
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4425993 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David T Lykken (University of Minnesota System, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1968 |
| Volume | 70 |
| Issue | 3, Pt.1 |
| Pages | 151-159 |
| Publication date | 1968-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychological Bulletin (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-2909 • E-ISSN: 1939-1455 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037/h0026141 |
| PMID | 5681305 |
| OpenAlex | W2165944832 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 262 |
| References cited | 4 |
Most theories in the areas of personality, clinical, and social psychology predict no more than the direction of a correlation, group difference, or treatment effect. Since the null hypothesis is never strictly true, such predictions have about a SO-SO chance of being confirmed by experiment when the theory in question is false, since the statistical significance of the result is a function of the sample size. Confirmation of a single directional prediction should usually add little to one's confidence in the theory being tested. Most theories should be tested by multiple corroboration and most empirical generalizations by constructive replication. Statistical significance is perhaps the least important attribute of a good experiment; it is never a sufficient condition for claiming that a theory has been usefully corroborated, that a meaningful empirical fact has been established, or that an experimental report ought to be published. 151 In a recent journal article Sapolsky (1964) developed the following substantive theory
Psychological research · Psychological Testing · Statistical analysis · Statistical hypothesis testing · Statistical significance · Statistics · Clinical Psychology · Gambling Behavior and Treatments · Mathematics · Personality Disorders and Psychopathology · Psychology · Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending · Social Psychology
Cross-National Data on Victims of Bullying
Sobre las limitaciones de Big Data en ciencias sociales
An examination of the curvilinear relationship between leader–member exchange and intent to turnover
On the comprehension of comprehension studies
The roles of aggressive and affiliative behaviors in resource control
Consumer Acquisition Patterns for Durable Goods
How Researchers Respond to Replication Requests
Betting After the Race is Over
The Generation of Confidence
Job crafting among managers. The mediation role of autonomy at work
A Longitudinal Study of the Predictive Relations Among Symbolic Play, Linguistic Verbs, and Early Literacy
Another Look at Rauding Theory
Consequences of prejudice against the null hypothesis
Analysis of variance and the magnitude of effects
Revisiting a century-old Freudian slip--From suggestion disavowed to the truth repressed
Ambiguities and unstated assumptions in probabilistic reasoning
"Assessing spurious "moderator effects
Assessing heterogeneity and power in replications of psychological experiments
Measures of explained variance
The response modulation hypothesis of psychopathy
Failures to detect moderating effects with ordinary least squares-moderated multiple regression
Perceived crisis and reforms
Naturalistic social cognition
The tolerance benefits of multicultural experiences depend on the perception of available mental resources
Shyness and physical attractiveness in mixed-sex dyads
Does the Defining Issues Test measure psychological phenomena distinct from verbal ability? An examination of Lykken's query
Direct and conceptual replications of the taxometric analysis of type a behavior
On the social advantages of having an older, opposite-sex sibling
Work preferences, life values, and personal views of top math/science graduate students and the profoundly gifted
Falsifiability is not optional
Size of church membership and members' support of church behavior settings
On the significance of effects and the effects of significance
Don’t sleep on it
Personality, emotional experience, and efforts to control emotions
Best research practices in psychology
Perceived fairness and pleasantness of social exchange situations
Replicability and other features of a high-quality science
Does imitation enhance memory for faces? Four converging studies
Academic acceleration in gifted youth and fruitless concerns regarding psychological well-being
Externalizing in preschoolers and early adolescents
Revisiting the hypothesis that friends buffer against diminished self-esteem arising from poor quality parent–adolescent relationships
Peer victimization and well-being as a function of same-ethnicity classmates and classroom social norms
A longitudinal study of social participation in preschool children
The Religious Factor in Detroit
Rationality in psychological research
The earth is round (p < .05)
A joinder on signifying significant significance
The stability of behavior
Rethinking the "significance" of the rejected null hypothesis
Signifying significant significance
Open exchange and epistemic progress
Another look at Meehl, Lakatos, and the scientific practices of psychologists
Methodological versus empirical literature
Answering Two Criticisms of Hypothesis Testing
Why Summaries of Research on Psychological Theories are Often Uninterpretable
Childhood Trauma and the Origins of Paranormal Belief
An effect size primer
Adaptive Thinking
Birth Order and Premarital Sexual Permissiveness
The social psychology of cross-cultural relations
Spatial ability for STEM domains
Null hypothesis significance testing
Should negative affectivity remain an unmeasured variable in the study of job stress?
Blaming the organization for abusive supervision
Insufficient effort responding
Self-efficacy training to speed reemployment
The Case Against Statistical Significance Testing
Recommendations for Increasing Replicability in Psychology
Beyond the individual victim
The role of negative affectivity in understanding relations between self-reports of stressors and strains
Too engaged? A conservation of resources view of the relationship between work engagement and work interference with family.
Self-gain or self-regulation impairment? Tests of competing explanations of the supervisor abuse and employee deviance relationship through perceptions of distributive justice.
Statistical significance testing and cumulative knowledge in psychology
Unethical for the sake of the group
Replication, falsification, and the crisis of confidence in social psychology
The generalizability crisis
Making replication mainstream
Student‐recruited samples in organizational research
Workplace Values and Outcomes
Power to Detect What? Considerations for Planning and Evaluating Sample Size
Scientific Guidelines for Conducting Integrative Research Reviews
Study Quality in Sla
Replications in Psychology Research
Emotional exhaustion and job performance
A Meta-Analysis of Personality in Scientific and Artistic Creativity
Trends in Theory Building and Theory Testing
Scientific Utopia
Appraising and Amending Theories
Shall we Really do it Again? The Powerful Concept of Replication is Neglected in the Social Sciences
Reversing the Extraverted Leadership Advantage
Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes
Change in Job Satisfaction Negatively Predicts Change in Retirement Intentions
Just a Mirage
Person–Environment Fit and Work Satisfaction
Geophysical Variables and Behavior
Implications of Recent Work in Philosophy of Science for the Role of Operational Definition in Psychology
Principles and Guidelines for Evaluating Social Robot Navigation Algorithms
A Domain-Specific Validation of the Core Self-Evaluations Scale
Blood Type Gene Frequency and Mental Ability
Investigating the Lunar-Lunacy Relationship
| Unique citing works | 262 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,6 |
| Citation span | 1969 - 2026 (58) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 209 |