Ch. 1 - Research in Behavioural Sciences Flashcards
(39 cards)
Who has been credited as the first individual to address basic questions about human nature and their behaviour?
Aristotle
What are the two primary types of research?
Basic and applied.
What is basic research?
Conducted to understand psychological processes without regard for whether or not the knowledge is immediately applicable. Goal of increasing knowledge.
What is applied research?
Research with the goal of finding solutions to certain problems.
How are the two types of research connected?
Applied research requires basic research. Applied research also provides new ideas and new questions.
What ar the three goals of researchers?
The description, prediction, or explanation of behaviour.
Which of the three goals is considered the most important?
Explanation.
Why is a background in research valuable? (4)
Allows you to comprehend research relevant to your profession, makes one a more intelligent and effective “research consumer,” aids in the development of critical thinking, and helps one become an authority on topics.
What are the three criteria required for an investigation to be considered scientific?
Systematic empiricism, public verification, and solvable problems.
What is empiricism?
The practice of relying on observation to draw conclusions about the world.
What distinguishes scientific observation from regular observation?
Scientific observation is systematic.
What is the purpose of public verification?
To ensure that findings can be observed, replicated, and verified. It makes science self-correcting.
What is pseudoscience?
Claims of evidence that masquerade as science but in fact violate the basic criteria of scientific investigation.
What are the two jobs of the scientist?
Detecting and explaining phenomena.
What are 6 characteristics of a good theory?
Proposes causal relationships, coherent, parsimonious, generates a testable hypothesis, stimulates new research, and solves an existing theoretical question.
What is the difference between a model and a theory?
A theory explains (how and why), a model describes (how).
What are post-hoc explanations?
Explanations that are made after the fact.
How are theories tested?
Indirectly by testing one or more hypotheses derived from that theory.
What is deduction?
A process of reasoning from a general proposition (the theory) to specific implications of that proposition (the hypothesis).
What is the format of a hypothesis?
“If A then B”
What is induction?
Abstracting a hypothesis from a collection of facts.
What is often regarded as the central hallmark of science?
Empirical falsification.
What does support for a theory depend on?
The number of times supported as well as the stringency of the tests it has survived.
What is methodological pluralism?
Using many different methods and designs in testing theories.
