New developments in research methods
Abstract
Recent events have placed psychological science at the forefront of a broad movement across scientific disciplines to improve research methods and practices. Many of the methodological tools emerging from this context have focused on two core aims: (1) maximizing what researchers can learn from each individual study that they conduct, and (2) maximizing what researchers can learn from synthesizing across multiple studies on a given topic. This chapter provides readers with the concrete tools they need to pursue each of these aims in their own research, with a focus on discussing when, why, and how to implement each tool. Readers will learn how to think about and distinguish between exploratory research questions versus confirmatory hypotheses and between exploratory versus confirmatory analyses, how to plan for unexpected results, how to boost statistical power, and the importance of conducting different kinds of replications. Readers will also learn about cutting-edge methods for conducting within-paper meta-analyses and adjusting for publication bias in meta-analysis.
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