Chapter 1

Question 1

4 major ways of knowing about behavior

Answer 1

• Non-empirical includes authority and logic
• Empirical includes intuition and science

Question 2

empirical simply means based on

Answer 2

experience

Question 3

Empirical includes

Answer 3

intuition and science

Question 4

authority

Answer 4

based on someone else’s knowledge

Question 5

Authority =

Answer 5

• parents, teachers, gov’t, but often they disagree with one another so we reject and mistrust authority
• Authorities often are wrong, even when they assert their beliefs most forcefully
• But if you did not have any faith in authority, you would not be reading this book or taking a research methods course from a college professor

Question 6

Logic =

Answer 6

is extremely important to science, but it cannot substitute for making the observation that it is raining, or proving that the behavior of all animals is subject to the laws of natural science

Question 7

logic:

Answer 7

based on deductive or inductive reasoning

Question 8

intuition =

Answer 8

spontaneous, instinctive processes rather than on logic or reasoning.

Question 9

intuition:

Answer 9

spontaneous perception or judgment not based on reasoned mental steps

Question 10

Common sense =

Answer 10

• a kind of intuition because of its dependence on informal methods
• additional characteristic of emphasizing the agreement of a person’s judgment with the shared attitudes and experiences of a larger group of people

Question 11

Non-empirical includes

Answer 11

authority and logic

Question 12

common sense:

Answer 12

practical intelligence shared by a large group of people

Question 13

two basic limitations of common sense

Answer 13

• First, standards of common sense differ from time to time and from place to place according to the attitudes and experiences of the culture.
• second limitation of common sense as a way of knowing lies in the fact that the only criterion common sense recognizes for judging the truth of a belief or practice is whether it works.
  
  • following a practice simply because it works does not permit any basis for predicting when the practice will work and when it will not.
  • it cannot predict new knowledge

Question 14

counterintuitive:

Answer 14

something that goes against common sense

In fact, we consider a scientific theory to be fruitful if it predicts something that we did not expect.

Question 15

science and 5 steps:

Answer 15

a way of obtaining knowledge by means of objective observations

(1) defining the problem,
(2) forming a hypothesis,
(3) collecting data,
(4) drawing conclusions, and
(5) communicating the findings

Question 16

parsimony:

Answer 16

using the simplest possible explanation

Question 17

characteristics if science

Answer 17

• Science Is Empirical - count the horses teeth
• Science Is progressive - moves towards truth
• Science Is Objective -
• Science Is Self-Correcting
• Science Is tentative - never claims to have the full truth
• Science is parsimonious - Occam’s razor
• Science is concerned with theory - the reason why aspirin works on a headache

Question 18

working assumptions of science.

Answer 18

realism

Rationality

Regularity

Discoverability

Question 19

realism:

Answer 19

• realism: the notion that the objects of scientific study in the world exist apart from their being perceived by us.
• Most scientists agree that one of science’s fundamental assumptions is the reality of the world
• In general, scientists have little interest in philosophical debates about the reality of the world. They assume that the world is there, and they go about studying it as best they can.

Question 20

rationality:

Answer 20

a view that reasoning is the basis for solving problems

that the world is understandable by way of logical thinking

Question 21

regularity:

Answer 21

• means that we assume that the world follows the same laws at all times and in all places.
• We pick up a book and are confident that it will not have become explosive since we last used it

Question 22

discoverability:

Answer 22

the belief that it is possible to learn solutions to questions posed

Question 23

Causality

Answer 23

• the idea that every event has a cause is a basic tenet of science
• A belief that all events are caused is called determinism

Question 24

determinism:

Answer 24

the doctrine that all events happen because of preceding causes

Question 25

temporal precedence:

Answer 25

something that occurs prior to another thing

ate ice cream then sick

Question 26

co-variation of cause and effect:

Answer 26

when the cause is introduced, the effect occurs

Question 27

probabilistic co-variation:

Answer 27

• Need not be perfect but be strongly probable like smoking causes lung cancer even if not everyone gets it:
• probabilistic co-variation = statistical association of a cause with an effect

Question 28

elimination of alternative explanations:

Answer 28

no explanation for an effect other than the purported cause is possible

Question 29

law

Answer 29

• a statement that certain events are regularly associated with each other in an orderly way
• frustration-aggression law states that frustration causes aggression
• In other words, the occurrence of frustration is regularly associated with aggression
• • It is not necessary to have a perfect relation between the two variables to have a law. As we noted earlier in the discussion of causality, some laws are probabilistic;
• often stated in statistical form
• Laws do not have to state cause-effect relationships between events; any regular relationship is a law.
• The arched back doesn’t cause the cat to fight; it is simply correlated with fighting

Question 30

Define a theory, both in broad terms and in strict terms

Answer 30

• Broadly speaking a theory is a statement or set of statements about the relationships among variables
• Stricter sense According to this view, a theory is a statement or a set of statements about relationships among variables that includes at least one concept that is not directly observed but that is necessary to explain these relationships
  
  • For example: Working memory is a theoretical concept because it is not seen or measured directly, but must be inferred from behavior
• must be falsifiable

Question 31

— are not observed directly; they can be defined only indirectly by reference to events that are directly observed. A — is an invention of the scientist to account for laws of behavior.

Answer 31

Theoretical concepts

To take an example from physics, no one has ever seen an electron.

Question 32

can a theory be proven true? Why, or why not?

Answer 32

• theory can never be proven true because there are many false theories that can predict any given outcome.
• no matter how many times the predicted result occurs, there might still be another theory that actually is the true one.

Question 33

What roles do theories play in science?

Answer 33

• (1) organizing knowledge and explaining laws,
• (2) predicting new laws
• (3) guiding research

Question 34

What is a hypothesis?

Answer 34

• hypothesis: a statement assumed to be true for the purpose of testing its validity
• If A is true, then B should follow
• If the prediction is not confirmed when it is tested empirically, either the law or the theory—or both—may be false

Question 35

What is operational definition?

Answer 35

• a theoretical concept must be tied to observable operations that any person can observe or perform
• If a concept cannot be tied to particular operations, then it is not a scientific concept
• eg: no operations exist that increase or decrease the probability of an event that would be defined as reflecting psychic ability.

Question 36

Using different ways of honing in on a concept via different operational definitions is called —

Answer 36

• converging operations.
• Each new way of producing the concept of learning will rule out one possible objection to the explanation, until a high degree of confidence can be reached

Question 37

What is a paradigm?

Answer 37

• a pervasive way of thinking about a branch of science that includes all the assumptions and theories that are accepted as true by a group of scientists
• New paradigm will be accepted when it accounts more successfully for empirical data than did the old paradigm.
• a theory is not rejected because it is disproved, but because a better theory displaces it