Flashcards
The Scientific Method
Cards in this deck (11)
- 1Why is scientific research desirable?Because it enables psychologists to produce verifiable knowledge about behaviour that is distinct from armchair psychology (common sense).
- 2Empirical methodsWe need evidence for our opinion/beliefs. This is actually testing/experiencing the phenomena.
- 3ObjectivityFactual information that isn't opinion based. If it's a fact it can't be disproven. A lab experiment is the most scientific because we can control the extraneous variables and therefore show cause and effect. However, can we measure behaviour without influencing it? This issue applies to other sciences too e.g: Schrodinger's cat.
- 4How can qualitative research still be valid?We could compare the findings of different methods of data collection (e.g: interviews, observations and content analysis), which helps to verify them and make them objective.
- 5ReplicabilityWe must be able to repeat it and get the same results. This concerns reliability and validity. If a study is replicable it's likely to be more objective as someone else is able to get the same results. Therefore the results are more likely to be true.
- 6Theory constructionThe deductive method involves starting from the general (e.g: theory of gravity) and testing it with a falsifiable hypothesis. Reasoning goes from the general to the particular.
- 7Hypothesis testingTheories are modified through this. A good theory must be able to generate testable expectations.
- 8Single paradigmHaving the same set of assumptions/beliefs underlying a subject e.g: cognitive psychology. It means that science can move on through paradigm shifts as theories are refined (e.g: the flaws being found in behavioural psychology). Psychology has mini paradigms or perhaps it is a pre-science (hasn't got a single paradigm because it hasn't been around that long).
- 9NomatheticAims to explain the behaviour of more than one person. Science is nomathetic and aims to make generalisations and find similarities.
- 10IdiographicAims to explain the behaviour of one person e.g: case study. RD Laing claimed that treatment was most successful when each patient was treated as an individual case.
- 11Are scientific methods appropriate?Does using the scientific method make psychology a science? Maybe it's a pseudoscience. Psychological approaches to treating mental illness have modest success at best.
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- A Levels Psychology (Research Methods) Flashcards on The Scientific Method, created by Hazel Meades on 27/04/2015.
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- Hazel Meades
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