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What makes psychological research scientific?

What makes psychological research scientific?

precision

skepticism

reliance on empirical evidence

willingness to make "risky predictions'

openness.

precision: be precise about your definitions

Skepticism: be skeptical about ideas, it is not only about debunking claim, but also explaining why something is not valid, so that better methods can replace the claim.

Reliance on empirical evidence: all ideas must be backed by empirical evidence, an anecdote or an appeal to authority, an ideas appeal or popularity is enough. Empirical evidence is necessary.

Willingness to make "risky predictions": theories should be able to show what is possible to happen, but also what will not happen. the scientist must state an idea so that it can be refuted or disproved. it is possible to fall into the trap of confirmation bias, looking only for information that will support ones belief.

openness: secrecy is a no no in science, all ideas must be free-flow. scientists must clearly explain their procedure and findings, so that they can be replicated. repetition is necessary, because what may see like a phenomenon, could just be a fluke.

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Descriptive studies.

Selecting participants for a study by a representative sample: selecting a group of individuals from a population for study that best represents the population on important characteristics such as age, sex, race.

A samples size is less critical that its representatives.

A small representative sample may yield important results, while an overly large sample size could be questioning if it doesn't follow proper sampling methods.

descriptive methods are methods that yield descriptions of behaviour but not necessarily casual explanations

Case studies: Are detailed descriptions of a particular individual being studied. case studies illustrate psychological principles, in a way that abstract generalizations and cold statistics never can, and produce a much more detailed picture of an individual than other methods do.

observational studies