psych - 1 science

Question 1

What is science ? is there one definition or many?

Answer 1

an attempt to understand the natural world through reason and based on evidence

Question 2

What is the scientific revolution?

Answer 2

a set of changes that occured in europe between the 16th and 17th century. a legacy which is still present to this day

it involved a new way of thinking new methodology called science

Question 3

what are the different approaches to defining science ?

Answer 3

Empiricism

experimentation

Mathematisation

mechanical philosophy

institutionalisation

Question 4

what are the characteristics of empiricism?

Answer 4

the idea that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience

claims knowledge must be based on personal observation

Question 5

what are the characteristics of experimentation

Answer 5

the idea that knowledge can be more surely gained from a planned interaction with nature

Question 6

what are the characteristics of mathematisation

Answer 6

the idea that the observed regularities in nature can be described by mathematics

Question 7

what are the characteristics of mechanical philosophy?

Answer 7

the idea that events in nature only have material causes, that there is no “magical” or supernatural elements in nature.

Question 8

What are the characteristics of institutionalisation ?

Answer 8

the idea that science is a collective enterprise and that all knowledge should be freely available to all

Question 9

what are the goals of science?

Answer 9

typically include one or more of the following

accurate description of the world

accurate prediction of phenomena

productive explanation of phenomena

ability to exercise control of phenomena

Question 10

what is the scientific method

Answer 10

proposes the following 5 steps
1 identify a question of interest

2 gather information and form a hypothesis by conducting research

3 test the hypothesis by conducting research

4 analyse the data draw tentative conclusions and report on findings

5 build a body of knowledge

Question 11

what is the deductivist view and the inductivist view

Answer 11

the inductivist view theory consists of nothing more than the law of nature. defined as the cautious generalisation of a large number of observations which is confirmed or not by future observations.

Deductivist view theory a bold conjuncture about the real world that can be never confirmed however it can be falsified

Question 12

what are three key components of an experiment?

Answer 12

1 a hypothesis to be tested
2 a change in a given situation
3 measurement of a quantity of interest

Question 13

what is a dependent variable ?

what is an independent variable?

Answer 13

The independent variable is a variable whose variation does not depend on that of another (the one you control)

the dependent variable is a variable whose value depends of that of another (the one you measure)

Question 14

what is a hypothesis?

Answer 14

the hypothesis is a statement of how x effects y, how the independent variable effects the dependent variable.

Question 15

name three key elements of psychology

Answer 15

1. scientific investigation
2. human behaviour
3. mental processes

Question 16

when did the scientific approach to psychology develop?

Answer 16

relatively recent (150 years ago)

Question 17

who were some early pioneers in psychology?

Answer 17

Wilhelm Wundt

William James

Gustav Fechner

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Question 18

Describe the Fantz experiment

what was the aim?

what did they do?

what were the dependent and independent variables?

What did they find?

Answer 18

the aim was “what can a 1 month infant see?”

they displayed patterns to baby’s such as a face, an incorrect face and disks and spheres. They measured how much time the baby spent looking at which patterns and balls.

the independent variable are the balls and patters, the dependent variable is the amount of time the baby spent looking at them.

they found that babys show a preference for complicated patterns.

Question 19

what are the five main approaches to psychological research?

compare and contrast

Answer 19

1. experimental design
   - an experimental situation
   - testable hypothesis
   - one or more independent variables
   - one or more dependent variables
   - has independent variable that is manipulated directly by the experimenter
   - participants are assigned to conditions
   - allows casual inferences
2. quasi-experimental design

• an experimental situation
• a testable hypothesis
• one or more predictor variables
• one or more outcome variables
• independent variable, potential cause of outcome variable (not the other way around)
• manipulated by selection
• does not easily allow casual inferences

3. cor-relational design

• variant of a quasi-experimental design
• no theoretical or conceptual distinction between predictor and outcome
• the research question is simply to determine whether two variables are related
• correlation does not imply causation

4. naturalistic observation

• tests things that are hard, impossible or unethical to replicate
• groups already exist
• harder to control all the variables that may effect outcome

5. case study
   - in depth study of a small group over a period of time cant really be generalised to a population