Societal changes are the real issue
Regarding your article "How much of the psychology literature is wrong?" in the June Monitor, replication may not be the real issue here. It seems to me that many psychological studies, especially social psychological studies, are by definition "context-sensitive" by virtue of the well-established fact that society changes, as evidenced by a black president and now a woman presidential candidate and the Trump candidacy.
Our human subjects in our research do not live in a vacuum, they live in a society which is constantly changing. As society changes, the "hidden moderators," as Van Bavel suggests, are at work. People change in their needs, belief systems, expectations, perspectives, lifestyles, habits, preferences and behavioral tendencies, so it is not a surprise if a psychological study is not replicated many years later.
It may have been accurate at the time of the study but generalizability may not occur over time.
The real question here is which factors that produce the replication error are produced by these societal changes over time and which aren't?
Bruce Hutchison, C.Psych.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Discrimination as a cause or consequence?
Readers of the June article "Becoming an adult in the face of racism" should keep in mind some basic lessons from Statistics 101, which cast doubt on the certainty of the article's conclusions about the effects of discrimination on the psychological well-being of African-American youth. First, in virtually all the studies they review, it is perceived or reported discrimination that is measured rather than discrimination itself. Second, in virtually all the studies reviewed, the association between perceived discrimination and negative developmental outcomes such as suicidality, violence, depressive symptoms, substance abuse, low self-esteem and low academic achievement is only correlational.
Although the authors assume that the direction of causation is from perceived discrimination to negative outcomes, this direction is not established. It may be that the causation is more complicated or even in the reverse direction. For example, it is possible that as youths show more of the negative outcomes, such as violence and substance abuse, they are indeed treated more negatively by others.
Alternately, as the negative outcomes increase they become more inclined to perceive discrimination in order to help them make sense of their plight.
Gerald Zuriff, PhD
Cambridge, Massachusetts
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