Chapter I Vocabulary Flashcards
Authority
relying on other people as the source of our knowledge and beliefs.
Basic Research
scientific inquiry that examines the fundamen- tal nature of phenomena - not applied research
Causal Inference
the conclusion that variable X caused variable Y.
Confirmation Bias
the tendency to selectively seek information that supports one’s views and avoid disconfirming information.
Control
the ability to regulate research settings and procedures and to guide the application of scientific knowledge.
Distal Causes
remote causes; in a chain of interrelated events that lead to a given result, the events that are remote from the result
Empirical Knowledge
knowledge that is based on the senses/on experiences with the world.
Empiricism
the process of acquiring knowledge directly through observation and experience; the philosophical view-point that all knowledge is derived from experience.
Falsifiability
a criterion for judging testability; an assertion is testable if we can envision some type of empirical evidence that will reveal it to be false.
Hypothesis
a tentative proposition about the causes or out- come of an event or, more generally, about how variables are related.
Operationism
defining a concept in terms of the specific procedures (or “operations”) used to represent it.
Peer-reviewed Journal
a professional journal in which reports submitted for publication first undergo a screening process by several experts.
Proximal Causes
immediate causes; in a chain of interrelated events that lead to a given result, the events that are close to the result
Science
a process of systematically gathering and evaluating empirical evidence to answer questions and test ideas.
Scientific Method
Number of methods to test hypotheses
