2 Logical Positivism in psychology 1

Question 1

What is metaphysics?

Answer 1

The study of general conditions/ingredients of all (anything) that exists.

Question 2

What kind of question is:
“What features do all existences have in common”
Metaphysical, ontological or epistemological?

Answer 2

Metaphysical

Question 3

What is ontology?

Answer 3

The study of what exists and what does not exist. (As well as what occurs and what does not occur)

Question 4

“There are 35 students in this lecture hall”

What kind of statement is this: metaphysical, ontological or epistemological?

Answer 4

Ontological

Question 5

Any __________ claim presupposes __________ assumptions

Answer 5

Any ontological claim presupposes metaphysical assumptions

Question 6

What is epistemology?

Answer 6

The study of knowledge and the nature of knowledge and justification. How we justify knowledge claims.

Question 7

“This finding was made through null-hypothesis testing”

What kind of statement is this: metaphysical, ontological or epistemological?

Answer 7

Epistemological

Question 8

Who introduced Positivism?

Answer 8

French sociologist August Comte (1798-1857)

Question 9

Why did Positivists abandon the investigation of causes?

Answer 9

Because causes are largely hidden and thus speculative and metaphysical.

Question 10

What should Science focus on, according to Positivism?

Answer 10

Science should focus only on observable phenomena.

Question 11

What were the three stages in Comte’s account of the history of human thought?

Answer 11

Stage 1 - religious thinking
Stage 2 - metaphysical thinking (became dirty word i.e. speculation rather than science)
Stage 3 - scientific thinking

Question 12

Who was Moritz Schlick (1882-1936)?

Answer 12

Physicist, logical positivist and head of the Vienna Circle.

Question 13

What was the aim of Logical Positivism?

Answer 13

To expunge metaphysical statements from the body of science. Metaphysics was responsible for all the epistemological confusion in the sciences.

Question 14

Which two kind of statements can be true according to Logical Positivism?

Answer 14

1) Statements which are true as a matter of definition, such as the statements of formal logic and mathematics.
2) Statements evaluated with reference to empirical evidence.

Question 15

Who imported the ideas of the Logical Positivists to the US?

Answer 15

Harvard psychologist S. S. Stevens

Question 16

What statements do Logical Positivists say should be the bedrock of Science?

Answer 16

Observation statements.

e.g. This subject’s reaction time is 650 ms

Question 17

If a statement cannot be tested to determine its truth, what is it? (say Logical Positivists)

Answer 17

Metaphysical (speculative) nonsense.

Question 18

What are theoretical statements?

Answer 18

Statements containing terms that are unobservable.

e.g. The superego consists of a collection of internal objects

Question 19

What is the Verifiability Principle?

Answer 19

The principle that sentences are meaningful only if capable of being verified by observational test.

Question 20

What criterion did the Logical Positivists use to demarcate genuine scientific statement from metaphysical nonsense?

Answer 20

The Verifiability Principle

Question 21

What must you be able to do to a statement for it to meet the verifiability principle?

Answer 21

Describe the way the statement can be verified.

Question 22

What are 4 problems with relying exclusively on observational statements in Science?

Answer 22

1) Data is always context-specific, specific to one research project
2) Data don’t necessarily help you understand how systems work, if at all?
3) Observations are fallible
4) There is no such thing as a raw datum that does not presuppose theoretical assumptions

Question 23

What is the logical error underlying the Verifiability Principle?

Answer 23

The logical error of identifying the meaning of a sentence with the method used to determine whether the sentence is true or false.

Question 24

What is the accusation of ‘methodological fetishism’ thrown at psychology?

Answer 24

The idea that psychology is driven by methodology, not ontology. That instead of taking phenomena as a starting point, psychology bases its focus on what the methodology (i.e. stats) allows it to study.

Question 25

In what psychological doctrine is the Verifiability Principle still assumed?

Answer 25

In operationalism.