Psychology as a science

Question 1

What is the Inductive Empiricist View?

Answer 1

• Put forward in the 18th and 19th centuries by the British empiricist school of philosophers (bacon, locke, mill).
• They maintained that we had direct access to reality through observation.
• The task of science was to observe data accurately and note regularities in the observations, which can be formulated into scientific laws.
• TRUTH is arrived at by the process of induction from data.

Question 2

What is the hypothetico deductive model

Answer 2

• This was advocated in the 1950s and 1960s by Karl Popper.
• contrary to empricism it maintains that the hypotheses about nature come first and that science should proceed by testing out predictions. this allows for the confirmation or change of initial hypotheses.
• Freudian theory was used extensively by Popper as an example of bad practice as its core assumptions and theoretical ideas are almost entirely untestable
• TRUTH exists at an infinite distance- we can always get closer but the task of science is to test and refine hypotheses, thereby achieving progress towards increasingly accurate and detailed predictions. Science does not progress by chance observations but by testing out hunches or hypotheses.

Question 3

What is Kuhn’s Paradigm?

Answer 3

• Published in 1962, the structure of scientific revolutions argues that science can be normal or revolutionary.
• ‘Normal’ science progresses within a paradigm- defined as ‘a shared set of assumptions about the subject matter of a discipline and the methods appropriate to its study’.
• from time to time, ‘paradigm strain’, in the form of refuted hypotheses or inexplicable phenomena, will build up.
• This creates the conditions for a ‘paradigm shift’
• TRUTH is relativistic, not absolute, being defined within paradigms.

Question 4

Argument for Nature of subject matter (inductive empricist)?

Answer 4

• the behaviour of humans can be objectively observed and measured in the same way as the behaviour of animals, other organisms and physical objects

Question 5

Argument against Nature of subject matter (inductive empiricist)?

Answer 5

• There are fundamental disagreements about this claim. Only radical behaviourists and neuropsychologists can be content with restricting the subject matter of psychology to the observation of behaviour and physiological indices. Others argue for the inclusion of feelings, interpretations and conscious experience

Question 6

Argument for Nature of Theory (hypothetico deductive model)?

Answer 6

• In Popperian view, theories of behaviour can be formulated and tested in the same way as theories in chemistry or physics

Question 7

Argument against Nature of theory (hypothetico deductive model)?

Answer 7

• Kuhn would argue that psychology has never approached paradigmatic agreement, spawning instead the development of many competing and incompatible theories. Thus psychology contains many forms of relativistic knowledge.

Question 8

Argument for Nature of methodology (Kuhn’s paradigm)?

Answer 8

• Psychology uses the experimental method and appeals to replication, generalisation and empirical data in the same way as other sciences

Question 9

Argument against Nature of methodology (Kuhn’s Paradigm)?

Answer 9

• More qualitative methods are needed to study the mind. Understanding rather than explanation should be the aim of psychology. Unlike objects, people are reflexive and can react to being studied or theorised about. This occurs at the macro-level and the micro-level.

Question 10

Arguments for the use of experiments in psychology?

Answer 10

• allows rigorous testing of hypotheses
• provides public, replicable, objective data
• allows the action of discrete variables in controlled conditions
• increases perception of the scientific status of psychology

Question 11

Arguments Against the use of experiments in psychology?

Answer 11

• produces an artificial situation
• subject to experimenter effects
• demand characteristics often obvious and strong
• only suitable for a limited range of behaviour
• prone to ethical problems
• tendency to simplify everyday life behaviours
• participants are usually a biased sample of the population, both demographically and personally.