Pseudoscience And Parapsychology Scientific Status

Question 1

Control and replication against parapsychology and pseudoscience

Answer 1

The use of highly-controlled experimental conditions, eliminates the impact of extraneous variables which could affect the results, and allows for cause and effect to be established. Also allows the study to be replicated by others

Pseudoscience:
* difficult to replicate the study due to poor research design, excuses, untestable claims - making it difficult to assess validity and reliability of results

Parapsychology:

• paranormal claims are based on testimonials/anecdotal evidence which can’t be tested for validity, as some psychic phenomena can’t be tested under controlled conditions, e.g. ghosts etc
• Accused of methodological weakness. Randi (1982) argue that controlled conditions are inadequate, making them prone to all types of extraneous variables- making it difficult to replicate the results

Question 2

Falsification principle against parapsychology and pseudoscience

Answer 2

Karl Popper argues that scientists generate theories/hypothesis to be tests as either to be true or false through empirical observational methods and/or experimentation. It is this ability to be potentially wrong that makes a theory scientific. Falsification allows theories to be rejected, revised and improved upon.

Pseudoscience: many research cannot be falsified due to the “as hoc approach” to the results/evidence.
- once the negative evidence has been obtained that doesn’t provide support to the theory, an explanation is given to avoid the contrary findings to avoid being falsified.

Parapsychology:
* with paranormal claims, when experimental results are negative, numerous explanations are offered. For example, excuses such as negative vibes by sceptics reducing the magnitude of psi phenomenon (shyness effect). The inability of falsification, under the definition of Popper would be deemed as unscientific but more akin to pseudoscience.

Question 3

Peer review against parapsychology and pseudoscience

Answer 3

Scientists submit their work for peer review prior to being published in academic journals, this enables other scientists to scrutinise their work to identify errors, flaws and fraud in their method and data. This allow validity to be assessed

Pseudoscience: tend to skip the peer review process and often publish their work in non-scientific sources (magazines, Internet) in which scrutiny is evaded.
- it may be argued that their investigation cannot be evaluated using standard scientific methods

Parapsychology: not all paranormal research avoids the process of peer review, as many parapsychological researched publish their findings in parapsychology journals. These journals follow the same scrutiny as orthodox scientific journals

Question 4

Progression of knowledge against parapsychology and pseudoscience

Answer 4

There is a progression and growth of scientific knowledge, as explanations are corrected, modified and improved upon, based on continuing research evidence.

Pseudoscience:
* remain stagnant as there is an “absence of self-correction”, this is because they tend to ignore/manipulate contradictory evidence and only seek evidence that confirms their explanations which in turn prevents the progression and growth in knowledge

Parapsychology:
* many explanations offered for ESP, psychokinesis, etc. have made very little progression in terms of understanding and growth in knowledge.

Question 5

The burden of proof on sceptics against parapsychology and pseudoscience

Answer 5

In science, the burden of proof (evidence) rests upon scientists to support their theory

Pseudoscience:
* this criterion is regularly violated as they usually use the argument that it is up to sceptics to disprove their claim, and if this can’t be done their claim must be valid

Parapsychology:
* follows the same reasoning that it is up to sceptics to disprove their claim.
Critics argue that this is illogical reasoning, claiming to be correct as there is no evidence against it.

Question 6

What is meant by the term Pseudoscience?

Answer 6

A pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but lacks scientific status.

It often fails to adhere to a valid scientific methodology, lacks supporting evidence, and can’t be reliably tested.

They are often characterised by the use of exaggerated and improbable claims, an over-reliance of confirmation rather than attempts at falsification, and lack of being open to scrutiny by other experts, and an absence of systematic processes to rationally develop theories.

An example of a Pseudoscience is Psychoanalysis (by Sigmund Freud), which suggests that the source of all adult problems can be traced back to bad experience in childhood.
This approach can be deemed as a Pseudoscience as it can’t be reliably tested and the supporting evidence is mainly based around case studies which can’t be generalised to the wider population.