features of science

• feature 1 : theory construction

  - a theory is an educated assumption, which is constructed through direct observation, theories help us to explain behaviours

  - you must be able to prove or disprove a theory

  EG: pavlov's dogs

  - looked at his theory to get to classical conditioning.
• feature 2 : hypothesis testing

  - hypothesis testing involves experimentally checking if the theory is valid (correct)

  - to be scientific, a theory must be able to be tested in this way

  step 1 - hypothesis

  pavlov hypothesised that dogs would make an association

  step 2 - experiment

  pavlov conducted his experiment

  step 3 - analysis and conclusion

  pavlov found that the findings were in favour of his hypothesis
• feature 3 : paradigms

  - paradigms are shared assumptions and understandings within a scientific discipline

  - for a discipline to be considered scientific, it must have a set of laws which no one can question

  EG: in chemistry, appreciating that sodium is a group 1 alkali metal
• feature 4 : objectivity

  - when we minimised the influence of personal biases within the research process

  - this helps to maintain the validity of our research because extraneous variables (IE: demand characteristics, investigator effects) are limited.
• how to increase objectivity

  - 3rd party (independant)

  - collaboration with other people: biases even out

  - taking a blind approach to the research
• feature 5 : replicability

  - replicability is the atent to which scientific findings or research can be repeated over and over again.

  - replicating the same results indicated replicability of the findings, but not necessarily validity
• replicability across contexts and cultures

  - if findings are replicated across different contexts and cultures, this can indicate they are generalisable

  - generalisability of the findings could indicate they are valid, replicability is therefore important in determining the reliability and validity of the research
• replicability of the methods

  • lab - easy, can control environment, scientific
  • field - difficult, have to go to environment, hard to get same place
  • natural - difficult, naturally occuring event
  • controlled observation - easy, recreate conditions
  • naturalistic observation - difficult, hard to replicate the same environment
  • questionnaire - easy, pre determined
  • unstructured interview - difficult, random questions, conversation like
• feature 6 : falsifiability

  - the idea that a theory is not scientific unless we can disprove it.

  - EG: it is generally acceptable that all swans are white, however we could easily disprove this theory by finding a swan that was black

  - null hypothesis is always used alongside the alternative hypothesis

  - in an ideal world we want to be able to reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis