psychology as a science Flashcards
psychology as a science - AO1
The discussion about reductionism raises some issues about psychology as a science.
If studies in psychology are carried out under controlled conditions so that cause and effect conclusions can be drawn, then that is science
Whereas, if psychology is holistic and focuses on the person as a whole, then perhaps it is less scientific.
what makes psychology scientific?
reductionism
scientific methods
reliability
internal validity
quantitative data
credibility
falsifiability
hypothetico-deductive model
what makes psychology unscientific?
holism
less scientific methods - field exp + natural observations, natural experiment, unstructured interviews
ecological validity
qualitative data
credibility
unfalsifiable
psych as a science - reductionism
a scientific approach means that beh has had to be reduced down into smaller parts to be studied in depth
psych as a science - what are scientific methods?
lab experiments
controlled observations
psych as a science - reliability
a scientific approach means that controlled procedures and objective, replicable measurements are made
psych as a science - internal validity
a scientific approach means accurate cause and effect conclusions can be drawn because only the IV is affecting the DV due to control of extraneous variables
what is a weakness of psych being scientific?
low internal validity - artificial setting means there could be demand characteristics
low ecological validity - data doesn’t measure everyday behaviours so is less useful
lack of qualitative data - numerical data lacks detailed knowledge of thoughts and feeligns so less valid
how is social psychology scientific?
burger, milgram - controlled procedures and objective, replicable measurements were made
sherif -
how is social psychology unscientific?
sherif - field experiment - lack of control over extraneous variables means it cannot be replicated
how is cognitive psychology scientific?
lab experiments - baddeley + sebastian and hernandez gil - replicable, accurate cause and effect conclusions can be made which raises internal validity
falsifiable - test using hypothetic deductive model - baddeley replicated study 3 times, 1st time wasn’t valid as pps used stm when ltm was measured, so he introduced 15 min interference task to accurately test ltm - increases validity - continually test and improve research
reductionist - baddeley
how is cognitive psychology unscientific?
not replicable - bartlett’s war of the ghost
case studies - hm - gather qual data, researchers lose objectivity after long period of time of getting to know the participant
how is biological psychology scientific
brain scanning used bio psych which can be replicated using different participants in a controlled, artifical setting in a lab
raine - quantitative data - -0.04 PFC - can be analysed objectively
lab experiment - raine - cpt for 32 minutes, made sure pps were off medication for 2 weeks prior to the study
how is biological psychology unscientific
self report data - brendgen -
uses
freud - unfalsifiable - lowers credibility as cannot be proved to be true or false
raine - holistic, less detailed - raine concludes aggression could be due to nature and nurture. results only tell some of the story
evolution and natural selection
