Lecture 1 - The Scientific Method

Question 1

1890 William James Quote

Answer 1

“Psychology is the Science of Mental Life, both of its phenomena and their conditions”

Question 2

What are the four goals of science?

Answer 2

• Description
• Explanation
• Prediction
• Control

Question 3

What is the description goal

Answer 3

Describe a behaviour and the conditions under which it occured

Question 4

What is the explanation goal

Answer 4

Finding out the causes of behaviour

Question 5

What is the prediction goal

Answer 5

Our ability to predict behaviour will only be as good as our ability to explain

Question 6

What is the control goal

Answer 6

If an explanation is accurate, then manipulating the causes should produce changes in behaviour

Question 7

What are four approaches to understanding?

Answer 7

• Authority approach
• Analogy approach
• Rule approach
• Empirical approach

Question 8

What is the authority approach?

Answer 8

Seeking knowledge from sources thought to be reliable and valid
- Advantage = allows us to assimilate existing knowledge
- Caution = don’t folloe blindly; a need to evaluate critically

Question 9

What is the analogy approach?

Answer 9

Analogy between some new event and a more familiar understandable event
- Problem = open to a number of interpretations

Question 10

What is the rule approach?

Answer 10

Try to establish laws or rules that cover a variety of different observations
- Advantage = can save time and effort
- Disadvantage = if followed blindly, can also threaten advancement of understanding

Question 11

What is the empirical approach?

Answer 11

Testing ideas against actual events
- Phsychology = observing behaviour and drawing conclusions

Question 12

What is a hypothesis?

Answer 12

An idea or tentative guess
- Psychology = Formally stated expectation about a behaviour

Question 13

What are the two main criteria that must be met for a hypothesis?

Answer 13

Must be:
- Testable (can devise a test of a hypothesis)
- Falsifiable (test can show the hypothesis is incorrect)

Question 14

The flow of scientific research

Answer 14

• Generate hypothesis
• Devise and conduct study
• Analyse results
• Disconfirm or confirm hypothesis
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Question 15

In testing hypothesis we can…

Answer 15

• Strive to design experiments that produce the clearest and best evidence
• Become skilled at identifying design flaws and learn how to avoid them
• Apply best procedures to assess our findings