Features of science

• 5 features of science

  • theory construction & hypothesis testing
  • falsifiability
  • replicability
  • objectivity
  • paradigm & paradigm shifts
• theory construction & hypothesis testing

  psychologists generate a theory and test it to see if it’s right (deductive reasoning) or generate a theory once they have an answer (inductive reasoning)
• falsifiability

  • just one piece of falsification evidence isn’t enough to suggest that a theory isn’t true
• replicability

  repeating a study to ensure generalisability of findings
• features of experiments to suggest psychology research is replicable

  • standardised methods
  • standardised procedure
  • controlled conditions
  • behaviour categories
  • operationalised variables
• objectivity

  personal opinions and desires shouldn’t affect the research - they need direct empirical evidence to support something
• techniques used in psychology to increase objectivity

  • controls
  • double blind collection of data
  • operationalised variables
  • peer review
  • standardised procedures
• Why do some people think psychology is less objective than other sciences?

  Studying personal experience requires a certain level of subjectivity
• paradigm 


  general theories that encompass many smaller theories
• paradigm shift 


  assumptions and terminology change but the shifts are generally accepted beliefs by the majority of the community
• according to Kuhn, a science should have a shared set of:

  assumptions, scientific methods and terminology
• psychology supported as having a paradigm

  there is agreement on what the subject is and most modern psychologists use scientific methods
• psychology refuted as having a paradigm

  there are a number of different approaches in psychology with different views about why we think and feel the way we d