The Seven Deadly Sins of Psychology

A Manifesto for Reforming the Culture of Scientific Practice

Chris Chambers

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780691192277
• eBook ISBN: 9780691192031
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Cognitive Neuroscience & Neuropsychology
• Index: Psychology

Why psychology is in peril as a scientific discipline—and how to save it

Psychological science has made extraordinary discoveries about the human mind, but can we trust everything its practitioners are telling us? In recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that a lot of research in psychology is based on weak evidence, questionable practices, and sometimes even fraud. The Seven Deadly Sins of Psychology diagnoses the ills besetting the discipline today and proposes sensible, practical solutions to ensure that it remains a legitimate and reliable science in the years ahead. In this unflinchingly candid manifesto, Chris Chambers shows how practitioners are vulnerable to powerful biases that undercut the scientific method, how they routinely torture data until it produces outcomes that can be published in prestigious journals, and how studies are much less reliable than advertised. Left unchecked, these and other problems threaten the very future of psychology as a science—but help is here.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Preface to the Paperback Edition
• Preface
• Chapter 1. The Sin of Bias
• Chapter 2. The Sin of Hidden Flexibility
• Chapter 3. The Sin of Unreliability
• Chapter 4. The Sin of Data Hoarding
• Chapter 5. The Sin of Corruptibility
• Chapter 6. The Sin of Internment
• Chapter 7. The sin of Bean Counting
• Chapter 8. Redemption
• Notes
• Index