The Null Hypothesis Testing Controversy in Psychology

Abstract A controversy concerning the usefulness of “null” hypothesis tests in scientific inference has continued in articles within psychology since 1960 and has recently come to a head, with serious proposals offered for a test ban or something close to it. This article sketches some of the views of statistical theory and practice among different groups of psychologists, reviews a recent book offering multiple perspectives on null hypothesis tests, and argues that the debate within psychology is a symptom of serious incompleteness in the foundations of statistics.