Lecture 9&10, Chapter 8&9 Flashcards
What was Wittgenstein’s most important contribution
He wrote two books, the first of which was on the meaning of language and this book inspired the logical positivism movement
What did the logical positivism movement entail
They said that meaningful claims are either empirical or logical in nature, logical claims are verifiable by looking at their form (e.g. logic and maths) and help represent the world, empirical claims are about the world and can be verified by observation, claims that are not verifiable are meaningless
What is sense data
data (experiences) that are gained through sensory perception; they are always neutral so that they can serve as a foundation for science
What are 4 problems with logical positivism and explain them
- Separation of theory and observation: many concepts are open concepts (= concepts of which the meaning can change over time) and many observations are already theory-laden —> we couldn’t make sense of them otherwise
- Underdetermination of theory by data: it is assumed that one observation can only lead to one theory, but in practice this is usually not at all the case. To chose between theories scientists use other criteria, which are theoretical themselves
- Induction: causality and general statements are excluded because neither are verifiable
- Unobservable entities: there are many entities that we cannot observe (e.g. bc they are very small) but we know of their existence. Does that mean they are not part of science? And what if we create better instruments so that we can see them, do they then become part of science? —> inconsistency
What was the Wiener Kreis
Scientists that started the logical positivism movement
What is the world according to the tractatus (Wittgenstein’s book)
The world is the totality of facts, and a fact is a state of affairs
What is logical atomism
Elementary facts are indivisible and independent of each other
What is constituents
Complex facts that are a combination of elementary facts
Picture theory of truth
If the state of affairs “depicted” by the thought does occur, then the thought is true
What is the sayable
The sayable is everything that is meaningful (= statements or thoughts that are about a state of affairs), truth of the statement is independent of this
Does logical positivism build on the traditions of empiricism of rationalism
Empiricism
How did Adler influence Popper
Adler had a theory about inferiority and would change his theory to fit basically every observation, this was not right according to popper
What was the school of thought associated with Popper
Falsificationism
What was Popper’s solution to the induction problem
Deduction - he said that theories can be used to derive predictions about observations
How are theories constructed according to Popper and what happens to them
Theories emerge from the mind in a creative act (it doesn’t matter how they arise) and then predictions are derived from it, these are tested on the basis of observation and if the observation proves the theory wrong, the theory is refuted
Explain the hypothetico-deductive model
Start with a theory, deduce predictions from theory, test predictions, if predictions don’t come true; falsify the theory —> if they do come true; corroboration (not verification)
What is the context of discovery (popper)
The fact that there is no logic for theory development
what is the context of justification (popper)
Strict rules for the logic of testing; modus tollens
What is popper’s view called and why (choose from rationalism, empiricism, idealism etc)
Critical rationalism, because he does consider ratio to be fallible
What did Popper propose as the demarcation criterion for whether something is science or not
The falsification criterion
What two things influence a theories’ degree of falsifiability
Precision and generality
What are 5 problems with Popper and falsification
- There is no distinction between better supported and less supported theories, theories are at best ‘not yet refuted’
- No knowledge on how to build theories
- Hard falsification is difficult (Duhem-Quine Problem): if a prediction doesn’t come true it could be because of the theory but it could also be because something else is wrong - theory is never tested in isolation so can not be rejected in isolation)
- Very counterintuitive for scientists to want to falsify their own theories, goes against confirmation bias
- Popper said he had a normative theory, but it does not describe examples of what we consider scientific success if we look at history
What are the 5 stages of science according to Kuhn and explain them
- Pre-science: no consensus within field, little progress, lack of specialized community
- Normal science: no novelties, not very experimental, expand current paradigm
- Anomalies and crisis: new findings make current paradigm unfit
- Revolution: shift from degenerative to progressive research model
- Normal science 2: new stage of normal science after a paradigm shift
What was feyerabend’s most important contribution
Its essential for scientific progress that anything is permitted, denied the existence of methodological guidelines
What are the 4 ways of gathering knowledge according to Pierce
- Method of tenacity - assumptions and beliefs people hold because they have been around for a long time
- Method of authority - opinions formed on the basis of consulting experts
- A priori method - using personal reason and logic to reach conclusions; deductive reasoning but also intuitive knowledge
- Scientific method
What were the 3 criteria for a good counselor (Rogers)
- Unconditional positive regard
- Empathetic understanding
- Congruence
What are 3 major developments after WW-2
- Antipsychiatry and the antipsychiatric movement
- Input from science
- Availability of medicines for mental disorders
What 3 types of situations were tests most used for
- authenticity tests
- qualifying tests
- diagnostic tests
What were 2 criteria to distinguish good tests from bad tests
Reliability and validity
What were the 3 movements in work and organizational psychology
Industrial psychology, human relations movement and human resource management
Clinical psychology
branch of psychology applying psychological knowledge to the assessment and treatment of mental disorders
Shell shock
anxiety response on battlefield that prevents soldiers from functioning properly; was one of the first topics addressed by applied psychology
Antipsychiatry movement
a pressure group started in the 1960s that called into question the usefulness of the prevailing psychiatric treatments
Efficacy of therapies
Measure to indicate how much improvement a therapy brings to patients
Psychoactive drugs
Medicines prescribed for mental disorders
Social management
management and control of deviant individuals and individuals in need by official social services
Welfare state
socio-political system in which individuals insure themselves against setbacks via taxes, which are used by the state to provide welfare services
Authenticity test
test to determine whether a person is who he/she pretends to be and to ascertain guilt or innocence
Qualifying test
Test to find the best person for a task
diagnostic tests
Tests to determine which condition a person has
Reliability
in test research, the degree to which the outcome of a test is the same if the test is repeated under unchanged circumstances or if an equivalent test is used
Validity
in test research, the degree to which a test measures what it claims to measure; determined by correlating the test results with an external criterion
Implicit personality theory
mixture of stereotypes and individuating information about the associations of personal characteristics that people use to make predictions about how others will behave in social relations
Structured interview
Interview in which all interviewees receive the same set questions
standardized psychological test
test that psychologists have examined for reliability and validity, for which they have information about the expected performance, and which is administered in a uniform way
IQ test
test which is supposed to measure the intelligence of a person; focuses on learning potential; results correlate with school performance and suitability for intellectually demanding occupations
Achievement test
standardised test which measures the knowledge of a particular topic or set of topics
Personality test
test to measure relatively stable and distinctive patterns of behaviour that characterise individuals and their reactions to the environment
Face validity
estimating the validity of a test by estimating to what extent the items of the test agree with one’s own beliefs; is not evidence-based
Social desirability
bias people have to present themselves in a manner they think will be viewed favourably by others
Personality trait
basic dimension used to describe differences in personality between people; is often bipolar with opposites at the extremes (e.g. introvert vs. extrovert)
Industrial psychology (who?)
first theory about how work should be organised; strongly influenced by Taylor’s scientific management: employees were the hands of the company that would accept any work if remunerated enough; tasks had to be made simple so that everyone could do them without much practice
Human relations movement
second main theory of how work should be organised; stressed the humanity of the employees and the importance of social relations
Human resource management
third main theory of how work should be organised; stressed the desire for self-actualisation in employees; employees will perform best if given autonomy and authority
Correspondence theory of truth
a statement is true when it corresponds with reality. Assumes that there is a physical reality which has priority and which the human mind tries to understand. First formulated by Aristotle
Skepticism
philosophical view that does not deny the existence of a physical reality, but denies that humans can have reliable knowledge of it; first formulated by Pyrrho of Ellis
Demarcation
setting and marking the boundaries of a concept
Philosophy of science
branch of philosophy that studies the foundations of scientific research, to better understand the position of scientific research relative to other forms of information acquisition and generation
Falsificationism
View within the philosophy of science that statements are scientific only if they can be falsified empirically
Ad hoc modifications
modifications to a theory that according to Popper make the theory less falsifiable; decrease the scientific value of the theory
Paradigm
notion introduced by Kuhn to refer to the fact that scientists share a set of common views of what the discipline is about and how problems must be investigated
Degenerative research programme
notion introduced by Lakatos to indicate a paradigm that does not allow researchers to make new predictions and that requires an increasing number of ad hoc modifications to account for the empirical findings
Progressive research programme
notion introduced by Lakatos to indicate a paradigm that allows researchers to make new, hitherto unexpected predictions that can be tested empirically
Realism
view within philosophy that human knowledge tries to reveal real things in the world; the truth of knowledge is determined by the correspondence of the knowledge with the real world
Idealism
view within philosophy that human knowledge is a construction of the mind and does not necessarily correspond to an outside world; the truth of knowledge depends on coherence with the rest of the knowledge in the social group
Postmodernist
in the philosophy of science, someone who questions the special status of science and sees scientific explanations as stories told by a particular group of scientists
Social construction
notion used by postmodernists to indicate that scientific knowledge is not objective knowledge discovering the workings of an external reality, but a story told by a particular scientific community on the basis of its language and culture
Science wars
notion used by the postmodernists to refer to their attacks against the special status of science and their unmasking of scientific knowledge as a social construction
What is pragmatism and who coined the term
view within philosophy that human knowledge is information about how to cope with the world; the truth of knowledge depends on the success one has in engaging with the world, on what works; truth of a question or theory is only relevant if it makes a practical difference —> Pierce
Observation sentences
Sentences that directly describe reality
Correspondence rules
They are rules that link the observational sentences to theoretical vocabulary (e.g. observational sentence = a person answered yes to the question if they have been very sad in the last two weeks, theoretical vocabulary = if a person answered yes to this and 5 other questions they are clinically depressed)
What are open concepts and who coined the term
Concepts of which the meaning can change over time, Arthur Pap
Does falsificationism build on the principles of rationalism or empiricism
Rationalism
What is incommensurability
The fact that Kuhn says that two paradigms cannot be compared to each other because they are so vastly different in the language and concepts that they use
What are auxiliary assumptions
Body of beliefs that help the theory
In reaction to the auxiliary assumptions you can either have negative or positive heuristics, what does this mean
Negative: you cannot revisit the core
Positive: some adjustments to protect the hard core are okay
What was bacons relevant contribution to these subjects
He was one of the first to promote observation and experimentation to acquire knowledge, instead of just relying on tradition and authority
What was Whewell’s most important contribution
He also acknowledged that hypotheses were possibly wrong conjectures
What were the 3 basic conditions for tests according to Hanson
- A test contains the condition of intent: tests are planned, arranged and given by someone with a purpose in mind; they are never random events.
- A test is not administered to collect information about performance on the test itself, but as an indication of some other condition: for instance, uroscopy was not meant to collect information about the urine, but to make statements about possible illnesses in the person.
- A test involves a difference in status between the test giver and the test taker: the test giver draws conclusions on the basis of the test which the test taker has to undergo.
What are 5 characteristics of science (other demarcations criteria)
- Systematicity and cumulativeness of knowledge
- Use of well-defined methods
- Clarity (= findings should be stated in a way that they’re always interpreted the same)
- Prediction
- Knowledge is revisable
