Science & Psychology

1. Positivism/Empiricism

   Annotations:

   • 1. The Real world exists outside of human experience. 2. Science is value free.  3. Theories are tested using reliable/objective methods to produce observable data. 4. The mind is a convenient fiction. e.g. Kimble, 1989 e.g. Radical Behaviourism
   1. Karl Popper 1902-1994
      1. "No, science exists outside of our culture"
   2. Hypothetico-deductive model (The logic of Scientific Discovery, 1934)

Annotations:

• 1. No objective truth, only applied aims. 2. Science: Western Male Values. 3. Theories: Lay or Scientific - described in terms of their political and social implications. 4. The mind is a convenient fiction.  Behavior is a function of language and the social collective (e.g. Discursive Analysis).  e.g. Gergen, 2001; Reiger, 1992

1. Thomas Kuhn (The structure of scientific revolutions, 1962)

   Annotations:

   • A More Realistic, contextual approach:  1.  There are paradigms 2. Paradigms shift 3. Different people in different theoretical 'camps' talk passed each other (rival paradigms are incommensurable). 
   1. "Science is embedded in our culture"

Annotations:

• Important feature: Everyone is their own psychologist, with their own theories, and these theories strongly influence behavior. 

1. Null Hypothesis

1. Correlational Design
2. Experimental Design
3. POWER
   1. Level of Statistical Significance
   2. Effect Size
   3. Sample Size
4. Within or Between Subjects

Annotations:

•    I had a question from a student about big Q and small q qualitative research that I mentioned in the last lecture. The term Qualitative research is ambiguous. Small q research studies what people say in a qualitative fashion, but in the wider context of quantitative work adopting a mainstream perspective. For an example see Study 1 of the handout we will be using later on in the semester (Fletcher et al., 1999; Ideals in Intimate Relationships). Big Q research (as I call it) also studies scripts or verbal exchanges, but from within a postmodernist or social constructionist framework, which typically excludes the kind of quantitative analysis found in mainstream psychology and interprets the results according to a relativist, postmodernist stance.   

1. Writing a Report
   1. The Method Section

      Annotations:

      • Anyone reading the method section should be able to replicate the stud based on what was read.
      1. The Intro
      2. What are the:
         1. Independent Variables Manipulated
            1. Factors and Levels
         2. Dependent Variables Measured
         3. Threats to Internal Validity/Construct Validity

            Annotations:

            • Construct Validity: Do the operational variables in this section correspond to the conceptual variables in the introduction?

            Attachments:

            • Common Threats to Internal Validity
   2. Results Section

      Annotations:

      • Reports must always be a comparison.
      1. Manipulation Check
      2. Future Directions
2. Research Question

Annotations:

• Margin of Error