Chapter 1 Flashcards
Methods of acquiring knowledge
are ways in which a person can know things or discover answers to questions.
In the method of tenacity
information is accepted as true because it has always been believed or because superstition supports it.
In the method of intuition
information is accepted on the basis of a hunch or “gut feeling”.
In the method of authority
a person relies on information or answers from an expert in the subject area.
The method of faith
is a variant of the method of authority in which people have unquestioning trust in the authority figure and, therefore, accept information from the authority without doubt or challenge.
The rational method, or rationalism,
seeks answers by the use of logical reasoning.
In logical reasoning, premise statements
describe facts or assumptions that are presumed to be true.
An argument
is a set of premise statements that are logically combined to yield a conclusion.
The empirical method, or empiricism,
uses observation or direct sensory experience to obtain knowledge.
Induction, or inductive reasoning,
involves using a relatively small set of specific observations as the basis for forming a general statement about a larger set of possible observations.
Variables
are characteristics or conditions that are change or have different values for different individuals. For example, the weather, the economy, and your state of health can change from day to day. Also, two people can be different in terms of personality, intelligence, age, gender, self-esteem, height, weight and so on.
In the context of science, a hypothesis
is a statement that describes or explains a relationship between or among variables. A hypothesis is not a final answer but rather a proposal to be tested and evaluated. For example, a researcher might hypothesize that there is a relationship between personality characteristics and cigarette smoking. Or another researcher might hypothesize that a dark and dreary environment causes winter depression.
Deduction, or deductive reasoning,
uses a general statement as the basis for reaching a conclusion about specific examples.
The scientific method
is a method of acquiring knowledge that uses observations to develop a hypothesis, and then uses the hypothesis to make logical predictions that can be empirically tested by making additional, systematic observations. Typically, the new observations lead to a new hypothesis, and the cycle continues.
Quantitative research
is based on measuring variables for individual participants to obtain scores, usually numerical values, which are submitted to statistical anal- ysis for summary and interpretation.
Qualitative research
is based on making observations that are summarized and interpreted in a narrative report.
The individuals who take part in research studies are called _______ if they are human and _______ if they are nonhuman.
participants and subjects
Replication is
reputation of a research study with the same basic procedures used in the original study. The intent of replication is to test the validity of the original study.
Pseudoscience is
a set of ideas based on nonscientific theory, faith, and belief.
