Epilogue

Question 1

What are the responsibilities of a scientist?

Answer 1

First must be the goal that society will be benefited by the work

educate the public about their findings

• What if particular groups were found to be genetically inferior in intelligence? Would it not be better if we did not know that? Most scientists have such strong commitments to the idea that knowledge is better than ignorance that they are willing to take the risks that new knowledge brings

Question 2

Briefly discuss the human biases to which science is subject

Answer 2

Science as Conservative

• Private industry now supports more than 67% of all research in the United States
• For example, a thorough examination of the literature concerning anti-depressants suggested that many studies showing that the drugs were ineffective were not published (Turner, Matthews, Linardatos, Tell, & Rosenthal, 2008)
• Companies that sponsor research commonly demand to see the results before they are published in the interest of keeping trade secrets. Publication is often suppressed if the findings may give some advantage to a competitor

Question 3

Essential Limitations of Science

Answer 3

• Gagarin’s failure to find God in space is an example of the essential limitations of science. No matter how hard he looked, Gagarin would never find God from his spacecraft. He was using the wrong methods. Science must remain agnostic about questions that lie outside the realm of things on which every person can agree
• Psychology can discover that poverty leads to psychological distress and crime and that people will work hard for financial rewards, but it cannot tell which goal is more important. This question is one of values, and its answer must come from outside science
• science is culturally relative: can bend to trends and be influenced
• Science is also incomplete. We know only a tiny fraction of what there is to know, particularly in psychology
• psychology is more incomplete than other sciences that have existed longer
• it is therefore tentative

Question 4

Practical Limitations of science

Answer 4

• opportunistic nature. Science progresses where the problems are easier
• One major practical limitation of science is the cost of research, which stems from the size and complexity of many problems and the technical difficulties of research
• Another practical limitation of science comes from the complexity of many problems
• Adding a third independent variable can make the interactions mind-boggling.