Discussing the Scientific Evidence Generation and Psychological Research Methods in Postmodern Societies

Albert Sesé

Albert Sesé Department of Psychology, Balearic Islands University

Keywords: psychological research methods; statistical models; postmodern societies; big data; virtual reality

Abstract

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pepsi-2018-0006

Evidence generation by current Social and Health Sciences is coping with some important barriers that difficult credibility of scientific products. Information and communication technologies have a strong impact over social relationships in our postmodern societies. The incidence of post-truth in our context is generating a pernicious relativism, far from contrasting the information veracity. The aim of this paper is to analyze and discuss the challenges of research methods and statistical models, more specifically for Psychological research, taking into account the impact of novel techniques as big data and virtual reality. Special attention is also devoted to the discussion about statistical shortcomings of psychological research and to the reproducibility problem. Finally, some potential solutions are proposed to be applied in order to improve the quality of scientific evidence.