Week 2 : Psych as a science

Question 1

What is science?

Answer 1

• What the sciences all have in common is a general approach to understanding the natural world
• psych is a science cuz it takes the same general approach to understanding an aspect of the natural world… human behaviour

Question 2

3 Features of science

Answer 2

1. Systematic empiricism
2. Empirical questions
3. Public knowledge

Question 3

(1) Systematic empiricism

Answer 3

• based on observation
• Empiricism refers to learning based on observation + scientists learn abt the natural world systematically by carefully planning, making, recording + analyzing observations

Question 4

(2) Empirical questions

Answer 4

• Examines testable questions
• questions abt the way the world acc is + can be answered by systematically observing it
• e.g. ‘is abortion morally wrong?’ can’t be tested but ‘how common is the belief that abortions morally wrong?’ is testable

Question 5

(3) Public knowledge

Answer 5

• after asking the empirical questions + making systematic observations, scientists publish their work
• professional journals
• publication is essential cuz science is a social process + publication allows science to be self-correcting

Question 6

Pseudoscience

Answer 6

• activities + beliefs that claim to be scientific, but don’t acc follow scientific principles
• they lack 1+ of the 3 features of science
• many are widely held + promoted which can be very dangerous

Question 7

Science vs. Pseudoscience

Answer 7

• Science… falsifiable hypothesis, objective data, peer reviewed, reproducible studies
• Pseudoscience… uses ad hoc hypothesis to make data fit theory, subjective data, not peer reviewed, can’t be reproduced

Question 8

Basic vs. Applied research

Answer 8

• Basic research… conducted for the sake of achieving a more detailed + accurate understanding of human behaviour without necessarily trying to address any particular practical problem
• Applied research… conducted primarily to address some practical problem

Question 9

Confirmation bias

Answer 9

We tend to focus on cases that confirm our intuitive beliefs and not on cases that disconfirm them

Question 10

Skepticism

Answer 10

Scientists cultivate an altitude of skepticism + pause to consider alternatives + search for evidence

Question 11

4 steps of research

Answer 11

1. DESCRIBE
2. EXPLANATION
3. PREDICTION
4. APPLICATION

Question 12

(1) describe

Answer 12

• qualitative methods good for this
• e.g. open-ended surveys, structured interviews, unstructured interviews, focus groups
• how are ppl thinking, feeling or acting in response to a given situation?

Question 13

(2) explanation

Answer 13

• Understand what caused an event to occur (how/why question)
• explanatory hypothesis
• cross-sectional surveys (measure some constructs and see how they’re associated
• experiments (causal things) manipulate one construct, then measure another

Question 14

(3) prediction

Answer 14

• Using previous observations
• e.g. longitudinal studies (measure constructs repeatedly to see how they change over time
• we need to recruit the right sample

Question 15

(4) application

Answer 15

• applying the knowledge to improve lives
• applied research, real world, not in lab, complex research designs (multi-method approach)