Psychology in Crisis

by Brian M. Hughes

This book addresses the various methodological crises that face psychology. Psychology has made great strides since it came of age in the late 1800s. Its subject matter receives a great deal of popular attention in the news, and its professionals are recognised as highly trained experts with wide-ranging and valuable skills. It is one of the most in-demand science subjects in education systems around the world, and more of its research is being conducted - and funded - than ever before.

However, while psychologists have long been cognisant of the challenges faced when striving for empirical rigour, numerous emerging crises threaten to undermine the discipline's credibility. Controversial psychological findings have been shown to be based on illogical interpretations, erroneous analyses and even fraudulent research. Reviews of standard research approaches have revealed the risk of systematic error to be troublingly high, and the arbitrary ways in which psychologists draw conclusions from evidence has been highlighted, not least by the major scandal surrounding the American Psychological Association's 2005 policy on torture.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

193 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 2018

About the author

Brian Hughes is Professor of Psychology at the University of Galway, Ireland. He has held visiting academic appointments at the Universities of Missouri, Leiden, and Birmingham, and at King's College London.

His research focuses on psychological stress and its impact on health, and on psychosocial moderators of stress processes. He also writes widely on the psychology of empiricism and of empirically disputable claims, especially as they pertain to science, health, and medicine. He holds Ph.D. and B.A. degrees from the National University of Ireland, and an Ed.M. degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Reviews

[Bárbara Nazaré · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book fosters a reflection (and, hopefully, actions) that are relevant (actually, they are urgent) to all psychologists. The message is point-blank and well-substantiated. A must-read!

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was brilliant.
I recommend it for anyone who wants to be able to read studies more critically, not just in psychology. There’s a saying that if you can’t explain things in a simple way you don’t really understand them. The author explains the implications of sample size choices, methodology, and how to interpret results. Everything is explained in a clear way.

[Christopher Kowalski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book covering a lot of issues in psychological sciences, until the author included a half-brained political screed on social conservatives which, rather than taking relevant issues seriously, painted a caricature to easily dismiss ideological adversaries

[monderin · Rating 2 out of 5]

idk seems like he mostly wanted a place to rant about academic journal politics; when he brushes against epistemics / philosophy of science the coverage is rather thin, which is what i was hoping for more of (and then some of the takes were just very bad)

[Alan Tennyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Accessible and engaging.