Psychology as a Science Flashcards
What is science in psychology
What is studied and the method of research used
Under what 5 criteria is psychology measured for it’s scientific status
Objectivity
Falsifiability
Paradigm
Empirical (evidence)
Causality
Using examples, explain how ‘methodology’ suggests that psychology IS and IS NOT a science
IS - Lab experiments, quantitative data and brain scans are all subjective methods with limited bias and are measureable
IS NOT - Case studies, field experiments and observations are all very subjective with their findings, they provide quanlitative data which is hard to interpret and more susceptible to bias
Define ‘unified paradigm’.
Shared set of assumptions and methods
Using examples, explain how a ‘unified paradigm’ suggests that psychology IS a science
Psychologists have the same goals of explaining and predicting human behaviour
Using examples, explain how a ‘unified paradigm’ siggests that psychology IS NOT a sceince
There is lack of paradigm in explaining behaviours in different areas of psychology, for example Biological approach explains aggression can come from evolution or an inbalance of hormones
Define ‘objectivity’.
Basing judgments and interpretaations on external data rather than on subjective factors like feelings of beliefs
Using examples, explain how ‘objectivity’ suggests that psychology IS a science
Quantitative methods operationalise concepts in order to measure them and methods such as inter-rater observations minimise bias
Using examples, explain how ‘objectivity’ suggests that psychology IS NOT a science.
Human’s observing behaviour’s usually create’s qualitative data which can be subjective
Define ‘falsifiability’
logical possibility that a hypothesis or theory can be shown to be false by an experimeny or observation
Using examples, explain how ‘falsifiability’ suggests that psycholy IS a science
Approaches that are more scientific have methods (Raine et al 1997) that are easy to prove false, like lab experiments
Using examples, explain how ‘falsifiability’ suggests psychology IS NOT a science
Frued’s psychodynamic theories part of the unconscious cannot be proven to be untrue, this lack of falsifiability means theory is not scientific
Define ‘empirical (evidence)’
data obtained through direct evidence, like observations of documentations in a lab experiment
Using examples, explain how ‘empirical (evidence)’ suggests psychology IS a science
Lab experiments like Watson and Rayner’s little albert study showed empirical evidence, data was documented of Albert’s behaviours to the stimulus’
Using examples, explain how ‘empirical (evidence) suggests psychology IS NOT a science
Frued’s psychodynamic approach is non-empirical as it’s based on a theory rather than what is experienced. Experimenting on the basis of this theory is impossible as ID EGO and SUPER EGO cannot be physically observed
Define ‘causality’
When an event occurs due to the effect of another event
Using examples, describe how social psychology suggests psychology IS a science.
Realistic conflic theory provides a testable hypothesis: ‘Levels of prejudice are greater before rival groups engage in subordinate task than afterwards’ Shows this approach is falsifiable.
Using examples, describe how social psychology suggests psychology IS NOT a science.
Humans studying humans can never be objective as factors liek researcher bais and demand characteristics become extraneous variables.
Using examples, describe how cognitive psychology suggests psychology IS a science.
Cognitive psychology focuses on memory, memory is universal and therefore a unified paradigm
Using examples, describe how cognitive psychology suggests psychology IS NOT a science.
Case studies of brain damaged patients could create subjective results. Like KF suffered memory impairment from motorcycle accident and had impaired verbal recall as opposed to visual
Using examples, describe how biological psychology suggests psychology IS a science.
Adrian Raine 1997, uses PET scans to get to empirical evidence to test previous assumptions of the brain structure’s role on aggression. Falsifiable
Using examples, describe how biological psychology suggests psychology IS NOT a science.
No unified paradigm as there are multiple explanations of aggression (hormonal imbalance vs evolution vs brain structure vs psychodynamic)
Using examples, describe how learning psychology suggests psychology IS a science.
Classical conditioning creates testable predictions which are falsifiable, Pavlov creates an experiment to test for classical conditioning and proves it’s existance
Using examples, describe how learning psychology suggests psychology IS NOT a science.
Pavlov study on classical conditioning on a dog is not generalisable due to the qualitative differences in the brain as a result of evolutionary discontuity
Using examples, describe how criminal psychology suggests psychology IS a science.
Loftus and Palmer’s experiment had a hypothesis to do with reliability of EWT that was falsifiable, as seen by the results. Previously EWT was seen to be 100% accurate.
Using examples, describe how clinical psychology suggests psychology IS a science.
DSM and IDC are objective with their standardised manuals to follow when diagnosing mental illness
Using examples, describe how clinical psychology suggests psychology IS NOT a science.
Diagnostic interviews are unstructured and gain qualitative data which is harder to replicate and measure, diagnosis is also dependent on what the patient is willing to disclose