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Review
. 2021 Jan 21:11:580111.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.580111. eCollection 2020.

The Impact of Complexity on Methods and Findings in Psychological Science

David M Sanbonmatsu  1 , Emily H Cooley  1 , Jonathan E Butner  1
Affiliations
Review

The Impact of Complexity on Methods and Findings in Psychological Science

David M Sanbonmatsu et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

The study of human behavior is severely hampered by logistical problems, ethical and legal constraints, and funding shortfalls. However, the biggest difficulty of conducting social and behavioral research is the extraordinary complexity of the study phenomena. In this article, we review the impact of complexity on research design, hypothesis testing, measurement, data analyses, reproducibility, and the communication of findings in psychological science. The systematic investigation of the world often requires different approaches because of the variability in complexity. Confirmatory testing, multi-factorial designs, survey methods, large samples, and modeling are frequently needed to study complex social and behavioral topics. Complexity impedes the measurement of general constructs, the reproducibility of results and scientific reporting, and the general rigor of research. Many of the benchmarks established by classic work in physical science are not attainable in studies of more complex phenomena. Consequently, the standards used to evaluate scientific research should be tethered to the complexity of the study topic.

Keywords: complexity; measurement; methods; reproduction; scientific rigor.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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