features of science

• Psychology has a reputation for not being a proper science among some members of the scientific community.
• Empiricism


  
  

  The philosophical position that factual knowledge only comes from experience with the world. This means that ideas supported only by speculation, logical argument, belief, accepted wisdom or direct from theory are not empirical.
• Objectivity


  Data should be collected and interpreted in a ways that avoids bias, meaning the data is not influenced by the researcher's own opinions or expectations. Research that has been affected by bias produces subjective conclusions.
• Ensuring objectivity

  1. Using a systematic data collection process - data gathering is carefully planned out and consistent for each participant.

  2. Using the double blind technique - researchers who don't know the research aims collect the data.

  3. Peer review to identify bias - knowing they are being reviewed will make researchers carefully consider their conclusions objectively before sending the research for peer review.
• Improving objectivity - Control


  Controlling for extraneous variables to demonstrate a cause and effect relationship.
• Replicability


  Scientists are required to carefully record their methods and produce standardised procedures so other scientists can repeat their experiments and observations.

  A replication by scientists using the same methods and finding the same results increases confidence in the validity of the original experiment.
• Falsifiability


  Karl Popper argues that the ability to collect supporting evidence for a theory is not enough for that theory to be genuinely scientific.A theory must be constructed in a way that it can be empirically tested and shown to be not true.
• Some of Freud's ideas are criticized as unscientific because the concepts like the id, ego, and superego are not open to empirical experimentation and falsification.
• Paradigm shift


  Philosopher of science Thomas Khun suggests scientific fields develop in a series of 'scientific revolutions' known as paradigm shifts.

  Scientists within each scientific field share a set of established assumptions, known as paradigms, and scientists gather evidence to support these shared views. However, sometimes new contradictory evidence and theories are generated that don't fit into the old paradigm. As most scientists are committed to the old paradigm, this conflicting evidence is initially rejected until sufficient evidence to support the new paradigm is collected.
• Stages of scientific theory construction- bottom-up process

  1. Observation - Psychologists start by observing naturalistic behaviour in the real world.

  2. Construct a testable Hypothesis - allow the observed behaviour to be tested under controlled conditions

  3. Conduct an experiment and gain experimental data - Empirical data collection using controlled conditions.

  4. Theory proposition that explains the results.
• Empirical method


  The process of collecting data from direct experience; in psychological research, this is the data we gather from direct observation of participants. This includes observation but also experimentation, self-report, case studies and content analysis.
• Paradigm shifts in psychology


  Early psychologists used introspection to develop theories of the mind, Freud used case studies and Wundt controlled scientific experimentation. This was a paradigm shift away from earlier religious and philosophical explanations that explained human behaviour as the result of concepts like 'sin'.
• Stages of scientific theory construction- top-down process


  Researchers start with an established theory and develop hypotheses that test one of the theory's assumptions. The result of this study can support the existing theory, add to the theory, or even discredit the current view.

  Hypothesis testing - the more a theory can withstand testing its assumptions with hypothesis testing, the greater the confidence there should be in the validity of that scientific theory.