30. Features Of Science AO1 Flashcards
What distinguishes scientific disciplines from non-scientific disciplines?
A shared set of assumptions and methods called paradigm
What did Kuhn argue?
Social sciences lack universally accepted paradigm so are best seen as a ‘pre-science’ unlike natural sciences
When does paradigm shift occur?
When there is a scientific revolution
What is a scientific revolution?
A handful of researchers begin to question the accepted paradigm when there is too much contradictory evidence to ignore
What is a theory?
A set of general laws or principles that have the ability to explain particular events or behaviours
How can a hypothesis be tested?
Using scientific methods to determine whether it will be supported or not
What is falsifiability?
Scientific theories should hold themselves up for hypothesis testing and the possibility of being proved false
What did popper suggest?
No scientific theory is necessarily true despite how much it had been tested, it simply just hasn’t been bribed false yet
What is the idea behind replicability?
If the scientific theory is to be trusted, the findings must be shown to be repeatable across different contexts
How is the validity of research decided?
By repeating a study, we can see the extent to which the findings can be generalised
Define replicability
Testing the validity of the researches results
What is the idea behind objectivity?
Scientific researchers must keep a critical distance during research, and not allow personal opinions or biases to affect the data or influence behaviour of participants
Define the empirical argument
Direct experience
What did John Locke say?
I theory cannot claim to be scientific unless it has been empirically tested
