Features of science

• Empirical


  information gathered through direct observations or experiments rather than unfounded beliefs/ reasoned argument

  objective - not allow personal opinions and bias to affect is
• Replicability and falsifiability

  Popper

  • a theory must hold itself up for scientific testing and the possiblity of being proved false
  • in order to be scientific it must stand up to testing that can be used to see whether or not it should be refuted
  • a theory can be considered to be strong once proved correct
• Replication


  used to assess validity of a finding

  • Popper
  • repeating a finding over a different number of contexts can allow us to see if the outcome is the same and affirm the original findings
  • repetition with the same Ps
• Theory construction


  occurs through gaining evidence by observation

  formulate a theory to explain it
• Theory


  collection of general principles that explain particular events or behaviours
• Paradigm + paradigm shifts

  Kuhn

  • what makes a discipline scientific is a paradigm
  • he suggests that psych doesnt have an agreed paradigm and is therefore seen as being in a pre scientific state
  • can also be argued psych has gone through many paradigm shifts such as introspection to behaviourism etc
• Paradigm


  a set of shared assumptions and agreed methods within a scientific discipline
• Scientific method


  1. problem or question
  2. gather information
  3. make a hypothesis
  4. experiment or test hypothesis
  5. gather and analyse data
  6. make a conclusion
  7. communicate findings