research methods: features of science Flashcards
What features is science meant to have?
- objectivity
- reliability
- empiricism
- rationality
- openness to scrutiny
What is falsifiability?
The principle that a theory cannot be considered scientific unless it admits the possibility of being proved untrue (false)
Who argued that the key criterion of a scientific theory is falsifiability?
Karl Popper (1934)
What did Karl Popper suggest about falsifiability?
That genuine scientific theories should hold themselves up for hypothesis testing and the possibility of being proven false
What theory did Popper propose?
The theory of falsification which suggests that a scientific principle had to be falsified to be true whereas pseudosciences couldn’t be falsified
How do theories become the strongest?
By surviving attempts to falsify them
What is replicability?
The extent to which scientific procedures and findings can be repeated by other researchers
What method of Popper’s is replicability an important part of?
Popper’s hypothetico-deductive method
How can scientific theory be ‘trusted’?
By being repeated across many different contexts and circumstances to see the extent at which the findings can be generalised and thus validated
How should replication be carried out?
By scientists repeating their investigations using the same methods with as much rigour and precision as possible and finding the same results
What is objectivity?
When all sources of personal bias are minimised so as not to distort or influence the research process
- objectivity is the basis of the empirical method
What is the empirical method?
Scientific approaches that are based on the gathering of evidence through direct observation and experience
Why should researchers maintain objectivity?
- To keep a ‘critical distance’during research
- so that their personal opinions or biases don’t ‘discolour’ the data they collect or influence the behaviour of the participants they are studying
Which methods tend to be the most objective?
Methods that are associated with the greatest level of control, such as lab experiments
What are examples of empirical method in psychology?
The experimental method and the observational method
How does empiricism play a role in the scientific value of a theory?
A theory cannot claim to be scientific unless it has been empirically tested and verified
What are three ways of improving objectivity?
- systematic data collection
- double-blind
- peer review
- control
What is systematic data collection?
Data gathering is carefully planned out and consistent for each participant
What is double-blind?
Researchers who don’t know the research aims collect data
How does a control improve objectivity?
Removes extraneous variables to establish a cause and effect relationship between the IV and DV
What is a paradigm?
A set of shared beliefs about the world within a scientific discipline
What did Thomas Khun suggest?
What distinguishes scientific disciplines from non-scientific disciplines is a shared set of assumptions and beliefs - paradigms
What is a paradigm shift?
The result of a scientific revolution when there is a significant change in the dominant unifying theory within a scientific discipline
What is an example of a paradigm shift (Freud) ?
Freud’s pscyhodynamic theory and use of case studies was a paradigm shift from earlier religious and philosophical explanations that explained human behaviour as the result of concepts like ‘sin’
What reasons might science not always be scientific?
- scientists become attached to their theories
- pressure may come from other organisations to alter research e.g. corporate interests such as ‘Big Pharma’
- new ideas in science may be discounted until they become widely accepted e.g. through a paradigm shift
- results may not fit a scientist’s personal views and values
Why is psychodynamic theory criticised as not conforming to the criteria of science?
- Freud’s investigation of the unconscious uses idiographic methods of examining a single patient’s unique case and generalising it to the rest of the population which is unscientific.
- This approach is also criticised by its psychic determinism as we cannot truly explain or measure our unconscious but Freud merely tries to rationalise it with conscious thoughts
- e.g. research behind theories such as the Oedipal and Electra complex were based on subjective cases of individuals that were unfalsifiable as it only tested one person
- cannot be disproved and often impossible to see
