Features of science

• Empiricism is the philosophical position that factual knowledge only comes from our experience with the world.
• Empirical methods is a process of collecting data from direct experience. This includes observation but also experimentation, self-report, case studies and content analysis.
• Objectivity suggests data should be collected and interpreted in ways that avoid bias by the researcher's opinions or expectations, as such research may produce subjective conclusions.
• Improving objectivity:

  • Systematic data collection - Gathering data is carefully planned out and consistent for each participant. This could be via questionnaires.
  • Double-blind - Researchers who don't know the research aims collect the data.
  • Peer review.
• Replicability is when scientists carefully record their methods and produce standardised procedures so that other scientists can repeat their experiment and observations.
• Falsifiability is the ability to collect supporting evidence for a theory that is not enough to be genuinely scientific. For a theory to be scientific, it needs to be constructed in a way where it can be empirically tested.
• Karl Popper - The black swan.

  • Example theory - All swans are white. Previous observations of swans were all seen on white swans.
  • Single observation of a black swan in Australia falsified the theory.
• Paradigm shift are a change in the way a field of study is viewed, or a change in the way a field of study is conducted.
• Paradigm shifts:

  • Early psychologists used introspection to develop theories of the mind; Freud used case studies, Wundt used controlled scientific observation. This was a paradigm shift away from earlier religious and philosophical concepts (eg - sin).
• Stages of scientific theory construction - Bottom-up method:

  1. Observation,
  2. Construct a testable hypothesis,
  3. Conduct an experiment and gain experimental data,
  4. Propose a theory explaining the results.
• Stages of a scientific theory - Top-down method:

  1. Researchers start with an established theory and develops a hypothesis that test one of the theory's assumptions.
  2. This can either support the existing theory, add to the theory or discredit the current view.
• Hypothesis testing - The more a theory can withstand its assumptions with hypothesis testing, the greater the confidence there should be in the validity of that scientific theory.