The Emergence Of Psychology As A Science

Question 1

What is empiricism?

Answer 1

The belief that knowledge comes from observation and knowledge alone.

Question 2

What happened when empirical methods were applied to the study of humans by WUndt?

Answer 2

Psychology began to emerge as a distinct entity

Question 3

What two assumptions was the scientific approach based on?

Answer 3

1- all behaviour is seen as being caused (determinism)
2- this means it should be possible to predict how humans would behave in different conditions.

Question 4

What is the ‘scientific method’?

Answer 4

The use of investigative methods that are objective, systematic and replicable.

Question 5

How are the investigations objective?

Answer 5

Researchers do not let preconceived ideas or bias influence their data collection

Question 6

How are the investigations systematic?

Answer 6

Observations or experiments are carrried out in an orderly way

Question 7

What does it mean if it is replicable?

Answer 7

Observations can be repeated by other researchers to determine if the same results are seen

Question 8

Why do results need to be replicable?

Answer 8

If they aren’t, they are unreliable and cannot be generalised across a whole population