psychology as a science Flashcards
what does induction mean?
- where the data comes first and is often from observing behaviour
- researcher looks for patterns then formulated hypotheses
- conclusions are made and theories are formed to generalise elsewhere
- known as a ‘bottom-up’ process
what does deduction mean?
- a ‘top down’ process
- idea/ theory comes first, hypotheses formed, observations/ experiments gather data, confirmation of the theories
what does objectivity mean?
- sciences should be unbiased and based on facts. personal ideas should not influence results
how does objectivity make research more scientific?
based on facts rather than subjective opinions and thoughts
what is replicability?
research should have lots of controls, which makes it replicable to see if the same occurs again at a later time and in different contexts
how does replicability make research more scientific?
someone else may find similar results that support or don’t support previous findings
what does the study of cause and effect/ manipulation of variables mean?
the aim of scientific research should be to manipulate an IV (the cause) to observe its effect on the DV
how does the study of cause and effect make research more scientific
manipulating variables allows us to see what effect the change in IV has had on behaviour (the DV)
what is hypothesis testing?
research should have precise and operationalised hypotheses which can be tested to support or reject a theory
how does hypothesis testing make research more scientific?
hypotheses can be proven wrong (null) so this goes with falsifiability
what does ‘controls and standardisation’ mean
research should have controls and keep things the same for each participant (standardisation). allows behaviour to be down to change in IV and nothing else
how does controls and standardisation make research more scientific?
increases replicability of research- someone else may find the same if they repeat the research at a different time or in a new context
what does quantitative data mean?
- numerical data makes the research more factual as researcher doesn’t have to use an opinion and be subjective
how does quantitative data make research more scientific?
- makes the results more objective and based on facts
what is falsification?
for a theory or research to be considered scientific, hypotheses should be able to be proven wrong. scientific research should not just be someone’s ideas
