psych - 1 science Flashcards
What is science ? is there one definition or many?
an attempt to understand the natural world through reason and based on evidence
What is the scientific revolution?
a set of changes that occured in europe between the 16th and 17th century. a legacy which is still present to this day
it involved a new way of thinking new methodology called science
what are the different approaches to defining science ?
Empiricism
experimentation
Mathematisation
mechanical philosophy
institutionalisation
what are the characteristics of empiricism?
the idea that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience
claims knowledge must be based on personal observation
what are the characteristics of experimentation
the idea that knowledge can be more surely gained from a planned interaction with nature
what are the characteristics of mathematisation
the idea that the observed regularities in nature can be described by mathematics
what are the characteristics of mechanical philosophy?
the idea that events in nature only have material causes, that there is no “magical” or supernatural elements in nature.
What are the characteristics of institutionalisation ?
the idea that science is a collective enterprise and that all knowledge should be freely available to all
what are the goals of science?
typically include one or more of the following
accurate description of the world
accurate prediction of phenomena
productive explanation of phenomena
ability to exercise control of phenomena
what is the scientific method
proposes the following 5 steps
1 identify a question of interest
2 gather information and form a hypothesis by conducting research
3 test the hypothesis by conducting research
4 analyse the data draw tentative conclusions and report on findings
5 build a body of knowledge
what is the deductivist view and the inductivist view
the inductivist view theory consists of nothing more than the law of nature. defined as the cautious generalisation of a large number of observations which is confirmed or not by future observations.
Deductivist view theory a bold conjuncture about the real world that can be never confirmed however it can be falsified
what are three key components of an experiment?
1 a hypothesis to be tested
2 a change in a given situation
3 measurement of a quantity of interest
what is a dependent variable ?
what is an independent variable?
The independent variable is a variable whose variation does not depend on that of another (the one you control)
the dependent variable is a variable whose value depends of that of another (the one you measure)
what is a hypothesis?
the hypothesis is a statement of how x effects y, how the independent variable effects the dependent variable.
name three key elements of psychology
- scientific investigation
- human behaviour
- mental processes
when did the scientific approach to psychology develop?
relatively recent (150 years ago)
who were some early pioneers in psychology?
Wilhelm Wundt
William James
Gustav Fechner
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Describe the Fantz experiment
what was the aim?
what did they do?
what were the dependent and independent variables?
What did they find?
the aim was “what can a 1 month infant see?”
they displayed patterns to baby’s such as a face, an incorrect face and disks and spheres. They measured how much time the baby spent looking at which patterns and balls.
the independent variable are the balls and patters, the dependent variable is the amount of time the baby spent looking at them.
they found that babys show a preference for complicated patterns.
what are the five main approaches to psychological research?
compare and contrast
- experimental design
- an experimental situation
- testable hypothesis
- one or more independent variables
- one or more dependent variables
- has independent variable that is manipulated directly by the experimenter
- participants are assigned to conditions
- allows casual inferences - quasi-experimental design
- an experimental situation
- a testable hypothesis
- one or more predictor variables
- one or more outcome variables
- independent variable, potential cause of outcome variable (not the other way around)
- manipulated by selection
- does not easily allow casual inferences
- cor-relational design
- variant of a quasi-experimental design
- no theoretical or conceptual distinction between predictor and outcome
- the research question is simply to determine whether two variables are related
- correlation does not imply causation
- naturalistic observation
- tests things that are hard, impossible or unethical to replicate
- groups already exist
- harder to control all the variables that may effect outcome
- case study
- in depth study of a small group over a period of time cant really be generalised to a population
