Ulpts, Sven (2022) Statistics and Psychology: what psychological scientists want to know from statistics and the hidden influences of statistics on the discipline. Research Master thesis, Research Master.
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A thesis is an aptitude test for students. The approval of the thesis is proof that the student has sufficient research and reporting skills to graduate but does not guarantee the quality of the research and the results of the research as such, and the thesis is therefore not necessarily suitable to be used as an academic source to refer to. If you would like to know more about the research discussed in this thesis and any publications based on it, to which you could refer, please contact the supervisor mentioned.
Abstract
Throughout the history of psychology numerous scholars have claimed that the dominant statistical techniques, such as NHST, in this discipline do not provide researchers with the kind of answers that they are looking for and many have speculated about what psychological researchers really want to know from statistics. However, there is a general lack of actual study into what psychological scientists want to know from statistics. In the current study I interviewed one former and two current APA division presidents and one editor for a psychological science journal to inquire what they want to know from statistics. A second question that the interviews were intended to answer is whether and how the statistical methods that psychological scientists are used to influence the kind of research questions that are formulated and investigated in the discipline. The results indicate that there is not just one thing that psychological scientists want to know from statistics, but rather a variety of different things that depend on the context and the subject or problem of investigation. However, there was some support for the claim that between NHST and Bayesian statistics the Bayesian approach does provide kinds of answers and information that are more in accordance with what three of the four interviewees want to know. Furthermore, interviewees regretfully stated that the statistical methods they are used to influence what kind of research questions they consider and how they formulate them.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Research Master) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Hoekstra, R. and Kiers, H.A.L. |
| Degree programme: | Research Master |
| Differentiation route: | Psychometrics and Statistics [Research Master] |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Aug 2022 10:00 |
| Last Modified: | 24 Aug 2022 10:00 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/1330 |
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