psychology as a science

Question 1

what does induction mean?

Answer 1

• where the data comes first and is often from observing behaviour
• researcher looks for patterns then formulated hypotheses
• conclusions are made and theories are formed to generalise elsewhere
• known as a ‘bottom-up’ process

Question 2

what does deduction mean?

Answer 2

• a ‘top down’ process
• idea/ theory comes first, hypotheses formed, observations/ experiments gather data, confirmation of the theories

Question 3

what does objectivity mean?

Answer 3

• sciences should be unbiased and based on facts. personal ideas should not influence results

Question 4

how does objectivity make research more scientific?

Answer 4

based on facts rather than subjective opinions and thoughts

Question 5

what is replicability?

Answer 5

research should have lots of controls, which makes it replicable to see if the same occurs again at a later time and in different contexts

Question 6

how does replicability make research more scientific?

Answer 6

someone else may find similar results that support or don’t support previous findings

Question 7

what does the study of cause and effect/ manipulation of variables mean?

Answer 7

the aim of scientific research should be to manipulate an IV (the cause) to observe its effect on the DV

Question 8

how does the study of cause and effect make research more scientific

Answer 8

manipulating variables allows us to see what effect the change in IV has had on behaviour (the DV)

Question 9

what is hypothesis testing?

Answer 9

research should have precise and operationalised hypotheses which can be tested to support or reject a theory

Question 10

how does hypothesis testing make research more scientific?

Answer 10

hypotheses can be proven wrong (null) so this goes with falsifiability

Question 11

what does ‘controls and standardisation’ mean

Answer 11

research should have controls and keep things the same for each participant (standardisation). allows behaviour to be down to change in IV and nothing else

Question 12

how does controls and standardisation make research more scientific?

Answer 12

increases replicability of research- someone else may find the same if they repeat the research at a different time or in a new context

Question 13

what does quantitative data mean?

Answer 13

• numerical data makes the research more factual as researcher doesn’t have to use an opinion and be subjective

Question 14

how does quantitative data make research more scientific?

Answer 14

• makes the results more objective and based on facts

Question 15

what is falsification?

Answer 15

for a theory or research to be considered scientific, hypotheses should be able to be proven wrong. scientific research should not just be someone’s ideas

Question 16

how does falsifiability make research more scientific?

Answer 16

researchers (and even late research which may replicate original research) may find evidence that counteracts previous hypotheses