Features of Science Flashcards
Outline empirical methods as a feature of science.
Science depends on empirical methods.
Information/ data is gathered through direct observation or experiment and experience.
This is important because you can make claims about anything but the only way in which we know things to be true is through direct testing, i.e. empirical evidence.
Experimental method and observational method are good examples of the empirical method in psychology.
By using empirical methods we can validate hypotheses (find them to be true) or falsify (find them to be untrue).
Science involves making predictions, scientific observations so that we can test hypotheses.
Outline objectivity as a feature of science.
Scientists’ expectations, opinions or biases should not affect the results that they record.
They must not influence the behaviour of their participants - keep a “critical distance”.
In order to be objective, the idea is to carefully control conditions in which research is conducted, i.e. in a laboratory.
Furthermore, an experiment enables cause and effect to be established (how varying the IV affects the DV).
Objectivity can be increased through a double-blind procedure, reducing investigator effects, as the research does not know the conditions of the study.
The addition of an independent investigator to conduct researcher (or more than one observer), as this means they do not know the aims and hypotheses of the study.
What two ways prevent unconscious bias?
(Objectivity as a feature of science)
Standardised instructions.
Operationalised definitions of observed variables.
Outline replicability as a feature of science.
Whether we can repeat the study and the results that have been generated.
Important that research is written up fully and clearly.
Helps us to establish reliability and validity.
If we wish to draw conclusions from research studies, the procedures and findings must be repeatable.
If a scientific theory is to be trusted, the findings must be shown to be repeatable across a number of different contexts and circumstances.
Outline control as a feature of science.
Allows us to establish control and effect.
Linked to replicability and objectivity.
Tests of difference give the most control, whereas associations and correlations do not.
Outline theory construct as a feature of science.
Occurs through gathering evidence through direct observation of STM.
It proposes a simple and economical principle which appears to reflect reality.
What is a theory?
(Theory construct as a feature of science)
A collection of general principles that explain observations and facts.
Outline hypothesis testing as a feature of science.
It should be possible to make clear and precise predictions on the basis of a theory.
This is the role of hypothesis testing.
An essential component of a theory is that it can be scientifically tested. In the capacity of STM, it might suggest people will remember 7-digit postcodes more effectively than 11 digit phone numbers.
A hypothesis can be tested using systematic and objective methods to determine whether it will be supported or refuted. If supported, the theory will be stronger, or if refuted it be need to be revised.
What is induction?
(Hypothesis testing as a feature of science)
The process of deriving a new hypothesis from an existing theory is called deduction.
Induction is carrying out your experiments or observations and then producing laws or theories based on what you observed. (This was used by many 20th century scientists e.g. Newton).
Outline falsification as a feature of science.
A theory or hypothesis must be empirically testable to and open to the possibility of being deemed false. Replication is the accepted way of determining this.
Freud: can this be empirical tested?
Outline Popper (1935) within falsification.
(Falsification as a feature of science)
Popper (1935) believed that no matter how many positive validations of a scientific theory occurs through experimental testing, it doesn’t prove it as undeniably true - it just hasn’t been shown to be false - yet.
These are the strongest theories.
Popper believes falsifiability is the determining line between what is and what isn’t scientific.
This is also why it is so important to include null hypotheses when conducting research.
What is a paradigm?
(Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts as a feature of science)
A paradigm is a shared set of beliefs or assumptions and methods’.
Natural sciences are defined by having a set of principles at their core.
E.g. theory of natural selection, quantum mechanics, particle theory, atomic structure theory.
Is there a paradigm in psychology?
(Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts as a feature of science)
In psychology, however, there has been too much internal disagreements as the subject lacks a universally accepted paradigm.
This is seen in the multiple different approaches and issues and debates.
Kuhn, stated that psychology doesn’t qualify as a science.
He believes that it is more of a pre-science.`
What are paradigm shifts?
(Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts as a feature of science)
Occur when member of one scientific community change from one established way of studying behaviour to a new way, due to newer evidence (often emerging from a minority position as a handful of researchers begin to question the existing paradigm).
E.g. Wundt’s introspection -> behaviourism -> cognitivism.
This new way of thinking gather popularity and pace and then there is a shift - there is too much contradictory evidence to ignore, displacing the original paradigm.
Give an example of a paradigm in psychology.
(Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts as a feature of science)
Asch’s method for studying conformity became a paradigm, as it was the accepted way to conducting conformity research.
