L1 Flashcards
comes from the Latin word scientia
Science
Means knowledge
Scientia
The scientific technique used to collect and evaluate psychological data.
Methodology
everyday nonscientific collection of psychological data used to understand the social world and guide our behavior.
Commonsense psychology
steps scientists take to gather and verify information, answer questions, explain relationships and communicate feelings
Scientific method
the psychologist’s goal of prediction rests the assumption that behavior must follow a natural order; therefore it can be predicted.
Scientific Mentality
data that are observable or experienced.
Gathering empirical data
modern scientists go beyond cataloging observations to proposing general principles—laws or theories—that will explain them.
Seeking General Principles
general scientific principles that explain our universe and predict events
Laws
organized and rational thought, characterized by open-mindedness, objectivity, and parsimony; a principal tool of the scientific method
Good thinking
a principal tool of the scientific method
Parsimony
an aspect of good thinking, stating that the simplest explanation is preferred until ruled out by conflicting evidence; also known as Occam’s razo
Parsimony
ruled out by conflicting evidence; also known as
Occam’s razor
modern scientists accept the uncertainty of their own conclusions.
Self-correction
to challenge an existing explanation or theory by testing a hypothesis that follows logically from it and demonstrating that this hypothesis is false.
Falsification
scientists meet frequently through professional and special interest groups and attend professional conferences to exchange information about their current work.
Publicizing Results
the process of repeating research procedures to verify that the outcome will be the same as before; a principal tool of the scientific method.
Replication
they systematic noting and recording of events; a principal tool of the scientific method.
Observation
the scientific estimation of the quantity size, or quality of an observable event; a principal tool of the scientific method.
Measurement
the process undertaken to discover something new or to demonstrate that events that have already occurred will occur again under a specified set of conditions; a principal tool of the scientific method
Experimentation
capable of being tested; typically used in reference to a hypothesis
Testable
Two requirements must be met in order to
have a testable hypothesis
procedures for manipulating the setting must exist
and the predicted outcome must be observable
in a scientific context, explanation means specifying the antecedent conditions of an event or behavior
Identifying Antecedent Conditions
all circumstances that occur or exist before the event or behavior to be explained;
Antecedent Conditions
In psychology, it would be virtually impossible to identify all the antecedents that affect the behavior of research participants (also called subjects) at a particular time.
Comparing Treatment Conditions
the scientific term for an individual who
participates in research
Subject
specific set of antecedent conditions created by the experimenter and presented to subjects to test its effect on behavior
Treatment
controlled procedure in which at least two different treatment conditions are applied to subjects whose behaviors
are then measured and compared to test a hypothesis about the effects of the treatments on behavior
The psychology experiment
the greatest value of the psychology experiment is that, within the experiment, we
can infer a cause and effect relationship between the antecedent conditions and the subjects’ behaviors.
Establishing Cause and Effect
the relationship between a particular behavior and a set of antecedents that always precedes it—whereas other antecedents do not—so that the set is inferred to cause the behavior.
Cause and effect relationship
The type of cause and effect relationship we establish through experiments is called a?
Temporal Relationship
we need to distinguish between necessary and sufficient conditions
Necessary vs Sufficient Conditions
