Features of science

• What are the six main features of science?

  • Paradigms and paradigm shifts
  • Theory construction
  • Falsifiability
  • Replicability
  • Objectivity
  • Empirical method
• Paradigms and paradigm shifts:

  Kuhn said that what distinguishes scientific disciplines from non-scientific disciplines is a shared set of assumptions and methods- a paradigm

  Kuhn argued that social sciences (including psychology) lack a universally accepted paradigm and are best seen as 'pre-science', unlike natural sciences such as biology

  Paradigm shifts occur, according to Kuhn, when there is a scientific revolution. A handful of researchers begin to question the accepted paradigm when there is too much contradictory evidence to ignore
• Theory construction:

  A theory is a set of general laws or principles that have the ability to explain particular events or behaviours

  Testing a theory depends on being able to make clear and precise predictions on the basis of the theory (i.e. to state a number of possible hypotheses)

  A hypothesis can then be tested using scientific methods to determine whether it will be supported or refuted

  The process of deriving a new hypothesis from an existing theory is known a deduction
• What is the process of deriving a new hypothesis from an existing theory known as?

  Deduction
• Falsifiability:

  Popper argued that the key criterion of a scientific theory is its falsifiability. Genuine scientific theories should hold themselves up for hypothesis testing and the possibility of being proved false

  Popper distinguished between theories which can be challenged, and what he called 'pseudosciences' which couldn't be falsified

  He believed that even when a scientific principle had been successful and repeatedly tested, it was not necessarily true. Instead it had simply not been proved false, yet
• Replicability:

  If a scientific theory is to be 'trusted', the findings from it must be shown to be repeatable across a number of different contexts

  By repeating a study, as Popper suggested, we can see the extent to which the findings can be generalised
• Objectivity:

  Scientific researchers must keep a 'critical distance' during research. They must not allow their personal opinions or biases to 'discolour' the data or influence the behaviour of participants.

  As a general rule, those methods in psychology that are associated with the greatest level of control (such as lab experiments) tend to be the most objective
• Empirical method:

  The word empiricism is derived from the Greek for 'experience'.

  Empirical methods emphasise the importance of data collection based on direct, sensory experience.

  The experimental method and the observational method are good examples of the empirical method in psychology.

  Early empiricists such as Locke saw knowledge as determined only by experience and sense perception. A theory cannot clain to be scientific unless it has been empirically tested