Feature of science

• What’s objectivity ?

  The ability for researchers to remain objective,meaning they must not let their personal opinions,judgements or biases interfere with data. Lab experiments are the most objective method within the psychology discipline because of the high level of control that is exerted over the variables. However,natural experiment cannot control over the manipulation of independent variables and is often viewed as less objective.Also content analysis and observational can be objectivity because the behavioural category assigned are at the personal option of the investigator 
• What’s empirical methods?

  The idea that knowledge is gained from direct experiences in an objective,systematic and controlled manner to produce quantitative data.art suggests we can’t create knowledge based on belief alone,and therefore any theory will need to be empirically tested and verified in order to be considered scientific.Adopting an empirical approach reduces the opportunity for researchers to make unfounded claims about phenomena based on subjective opinion.
• What’s replicability? 

  Means the ability to conduct research again and achieve consistent results.If the findings can truly be generalised and therefore be truly valid , psychologists would expect that any replication of a study using the same standardised procedures would produce smilies findings and reach the same conclusions.
• What did popper say ?

  Refers to the idea that a research hypothesis could be proved wrong . Scientific research can never be proven to be true only subjected to research attempts to prove them as false. For this reason all investigations have a null hypothesis which suggests that any difference or relationship found is due to chance.
• What’s theory construction 

  A theory is a set of principles that intend to explain certain behaviours or events.However to construct a theory evidence to support this notion needs to be collected first since the empirical method doesn’t allow knowledge to based solely on beliefs.
• What does a researcher need to do if they suspect something to be true?

  They need to devise an experiment that will allow them to examine their ideas.If they start to discover patterns or trends in their research then a theory can be constructed .Researchers can make predictions about what they expect to happen (hypothesis)
• What must you do when designing a hypothesis ?

  It must be objective and measurable so that at the end of the investigation a clear decision can be made as to whether results have supported or refuted the hypothesis . If findings support the hypothesis then the theory will have been strengthened , if it’s refuted then it’s likely that alterations will be made to the theory accordingly .
• What’s a paradigm ? 

  This is a set of shared assumptions and methods within a particular discipline.
• What did Kuhn suggest ?

  This is separated a scientific discipline from non - scientific disciplines.Under this assumption he suggested that psychology was perhaps best seen as a pre-science seperate from the likes of pshyics and biology.He suggested psychology had too much disagreement at its core between the various approaches (e.g behaviours vs cog psychologists) and was unable to agree on one unifying approach to consider itself a science . 
• What’s a paradigm shift ?

  When a new idea / way of thinking becomes popular and the old ways are challenged 
• What’s one sample of a paradigm shift ?

  Scientists believed the earth was flat and now its accepted that the earth is round 
• What’s the paradigm shift in psychology ?

  First is was Wundt and the unconscious mind , 1927 and 1938 the work of Pavlov and skinner who adopted the behaviourist position that all behaviour was learned from the environment and experiences.In the 1960s , the cog approach with the development that our minds like a computer .Moved from behaviourist towards the role of cognitions in explaining human behaviour , although elements of the the behaviourist approach remained in use and were combined in CBT