Features of Science - viewing psychology as a science

Cards (9)

  • Objectivity
    removing personal bias, investigators own ideas are distanced from the research and when recording observations
  • Empirical Method
    (lab experiment) - applies scientific approaches e.g. controlled, standardised procedures that are based on gathering evidence through direct observation
  • Falsifiability
    Karl Popper (1935) believed that genuine scientific theories should hold themselves up for hypothesis testing but also be able to reject the hypothesis
    FALSIFIABILITY:
    • able to be proven false
    • set out to disconfirm
    • contingent - giving up on beliefs because you've been proven wrong
  • What did Karl Popper believe in?

    Pseudoscience - fake science that couldn't hold up falsifiability as it couldn't test a hypothesis so therefore cannot be proven false
  • Replicability
    the extent to which scientific procedures and findings can be
  • Hypothesis testing
    a theory needs to propose a number of predictions (hypotheses) which can be tested to either strengthen the theory or prove it false
  • What is a Paradigm?

    an accepted set of assumptions about something in particular, for example: gravity - it is agreed to by everyone and cannot be argued with
  • Why can't psychology be considered a paradigm?

    because psychology is a field that encompasses multiple paradigms, such as behaviourism, cognitive psychology, and psychodynamic theory - as Kuhn suggested (1962) that psychology doesn't have a universally accepted paradigm
  • What is a paradigm shift?

    an important change in the basic concepts of a scientific discipline - a scientific revolution