Features of Science

• Objectivity describes researchers who seek to find objective data rather than subjective data. It is based on factual evidence collected rather than opinion.
• Empiricism is the idea that all knowledge and learning comes from first hand observation. The empirical method involves using scientific methods to collect data (quantitative data only) in ways which are controlled by the researcher and which are replicable
• The hypothetico-deductive method is the testing of the consequences of hypotheses, to determine whether the hypotheses themselves are false or acceptable.
• Theory construction is the process by which models are created. A ‘model’ or ‘theory’ is an explanation of a phenomenon
• A theory cannot be proven without empirically sourced objective evidence. Also cannot be discovered without the hypothetico-deductive (hypothesis then experiment) method as this puts the theory into practice to test if it is true.
• Theories take a long time to construct and undergo many changes as new empirical evidence is discovered- the more objective this evidence is the stronger the theory
• Replicability refers to the ability to check and verify scientific findings, by being able to repeat a study’s methodology exactly and achieve similar results.
• in Psychology we say ‘similar’ because people differ so much that it would be highly unlikely that we would find exactly the same data, even if a study was repeated in exactly the same way.
• Replicability entails being extremely clear with the method/s used and steps taken by the researcher during the experiment meaning it is easy to follow the instructions to replicate the experiment exactly.
• Replicability is a vital part of the scientific method because each time a study is repeated and finds similar results, it becomes less likely that those results could be down to chance alone.
• If we find different results, as this implies the original findings were just down to chance or a flaw that was not spotted initially. In this case, the hypothesis will not be built into the theory, because the scientific community cannot trust this research. (Replicability is an important part of theory construction)
• If something is falsifiable it means we know what evidence it would take to prove something wrong
• If something is unfalsifiable it means we do not know what evidence it would take to prove something wrong
• Falsifiability is important (argued Popper) as it is the only way to know if an idea is true. If we do not know what it takes to prove something wrong then we cannot look for evidence that it is wrong- therefore there is no way to know if an idea is actually true as even if we were presented with evidence that proves an idea wrong we would not be able to recognise it as the idea is unfalsifiable.
• A paradigm is a set of shared fundamental assumptions.
• A paradigm shift is when a change occurs in people’s shared fundamental assumptions, and a new belief comes to be accepted instead.
• Theories must be falsifiable otherwise they cannot be tested and therefore cannot become laws.
• Kuhn argued that science goes through periods where everyone shares the same basic ideas about how things work – these are called ‘normal science’. During normal science, scientists build on existing knowledge by testing hypotheses within the current paradigm.
• Paradigms / such strong beliefs only shift once so much evidence for the new idea has built up that it is incontrovertible - that is, once there is so much evidence that it is impossible to dispute.