Psychology as a science

Question 1

What are the main features of a sceince

Answer 1

Empirical methods​
Objectivity​
Replicability​
Control​
Theory construction​
Hypothesis testing​
Falsification

Question 2

What are empirical methods

Answer 2

• Information/data gathered through direct observation or experiment. Important because you can make claims about anything but the only way we know things to be true is through direct testing, i.e. empirical evidence. ​
• Use empirical methods to validate hypotheses (find them to be true) or falsify (find them to be untrue)

Question 3

What is objectivity

Answer 3

• scientists expectations should not affect the results that they record- should not be influenced by emotions/prejudices or biased viewpoint
• carefully control conditions which research is conducted, i.e. in a lab. Furthermore, an experiment enables cause and effect to be established (how varying the IV affects the DV)

Question 4

What is replicability and what are the advantages

Answer 4

• whether or not we can repeat the study and the results that have been generated
• Important that research is written up fully and clearly
• Helps us to establish reliability and validity
• If we wish to draw conclusions from research studies, the procedures and finding must be repeatable

Question 5

Why is control an important feature of a science

Answer 5

• Allows us to establish cause and effect

- Linked to replicability and objectivity

Question 6

Why is theory construction and important feature of a science

Answer 6

-facts alone are meaningless- explanations or theories must be constructed so that we can make sense of the facts

Question 7

What did Popper (1935) believe

Answer 7

• no matter how many positive validations of a scientific theory occur through experimental testing, it doesn’t prove it as undeniably true. However, one example of falsification is enough to render a theory untrue. ​
• falsifiability is the determining liner between what is and what isn’t scientific

Question 8

Why is hypothesis testing an important feature of a science

Answer 8

• a good theory must generate testable expectations
• these are stated in hypotheses
• If a scientist fails to find support for a hypothesis, then the theory requires modification

Question 9

What is a paradigm

Answer 9

it is a shared set of assumptions about the subject matter of a discipline and the methods appropriate to its study

Question 10

When does a paradigm shift occur

Answer 10

occurs when members of one scientific community change from one established way of explaining/studying a behaviour to a new way, due to new/contradictory evidence e.g. shifting focus from cause to free will
-Very occasionally a paradigm is replaced with a new paradigm, often emerging from a minority position

Question 11

What did Kuhn argue

Answer 11

• argued that science does not evolve gradually towards truth, science has a paradigm which remains constant before going through a paradigm shift when current theories can’t explain some phenomenon, and someone proposes a new theory
• Science tends to go through these shifts therefore psychology is not a science as it has no agreed paradigm
• There are many conflicting approaches and the subject matter of Psychology is so diverse therefore researchers in different fields have little in common