Task 9 Flashcards
Is Psychology a Science? (31 cards)
Thoughts before Scientific Revolution
- Plato
- rationalist view of knowledge acquisition
- reason
- observable world as shadow of real world
- human sould had innate knowledge of universe
Thoughts before Scientific Revolution
- Aristotle
- room for observation and distinguished deductive and inductive reasoning
- axioms —> perception as source of information
- correspondence theory of truth
Thoughts before Scientific Revolution
- Skeptics
- humans might not be able to understand physical reality
Thoughts before Scientific Revolution
- Augustine
- adopted Aristotle‘s logic and tried to reconcile it with Christian theology
- true knowledge based on God‘s revelations
Scientific Revolution
- Galilei
- true knowledge as knowledge resonating with human understanding
- importance of observation and experimentation for acquisition of knowledge
- ‚thought experiments‘
Scientific Revolution
- Francis Bacon
- promoted use of systematic observation and inductive reasoning as road to new knowledge
Scientific Revolution
- Newton
- advice for scientific method
- „hypotheses“ = phenomena that couldn‘t be explained
Probabilistic Reasoning and Ascent of Hypotheses
- Inverse Probability Problem
- when something has several possible outcomes, it is possible to calculate probability of each outcome
- inverse probability problem = determining how probable a theory was, given series of observations
Probabilistic Reasoning and Ascent of Hypotheses
- John Herschel
- John Herschel (1792-1871)
- if done carefuly, observation-independent scientific reasoning could lead to truth
- acknowledged that it was possible to have different views of same phenomenon, because scientific theories are to some extent speculative
- co-existence of rival theories was good, because choice could be made between hypotheses formulation and seeing which accounted best for findings
Theories Influence Observations
- Whewell
- insight that observation and theory influence each other
Theories Influence Observations
- Comte
- founder of positivism
- acknowledged influence of theory on observation
20th century attempts at demarcation
- First Attempt:
- Logical Positivism
- demarcation = setting and marking the boundaries of a concept; used in philosophy of science to denote attempts to define specificity of science
- first half of 20th century: philosophy should stop thinking about metaphysics, and instead try to understand essence of scientific approach: central tenet was the verification principle
20th century attempts at demarcation
- First Attempt:
- Problems with Verification Criterion
(1) verification does not solve induction problem
(2) scientific theories are full of variables that cannot be observed directly
(3) there are no demarcation criteria that unambiguously define ‘observable’
(4) sometimes, things are not observable until one knows how to search for them
(5) verifiable observations du not guarantee correct understanding
20th century attempts at demarcation
- Second Attempt:
- Karl Popper
- Hypothetico-Deductive Method
- Karl Popper
- Karl Popper (1902-1994)
observation -> interpretation -> hypothesis -> test -> observation - correctness of theory is evaluated by formulation of testable prediction (=hypothesis) on basis of deductive reasoning
- prediction then put to falsification test, which provides new observational data for further theorizing
- inductive vs. deductive reasoning
20th century attempts at demarcation
- Second Attempt:
- Karl Popper
- Implications of Popper’s Proposals for Science’s Status
- Karl Popper
- Popper as first philosopher of science to accept that scientific explanations could be wrong, even when they seemed in line with collected evidence
- science proceeds by trial and error
- falsification goes against human intuition
20th century attempts at demarcation
- Second Attempt:
- Karl Popper
- Sophisticated Falsificationism
- Karl Popper
(1) Poppers insistence on replacing falsified theories by bold alternatives as soon as they are contradicted by empirical observations does not agree with scientific practice and would seem to be too radical
(2) when coming across conflicting evidence -> ad hoc modifications
(3) Popper: modifications acceptable as long as they make the theory less falsifiable
(4) problem is that researchers regularly propose modifications they do not test and that are not taken up by other researchers
Science is Succession of Paradigms
- Thomas Kuhn’s Theory
- Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996)
pre-science -> normal science -> revolution -> new normal science -> new crisis -> … - each paradigm as temporary set of ideas
- Kuhn was unclear about whether revolution meant progress or just a change of paradigm
- science wars
Pragmatic Alternative
- view within philosophy, that human knowledge is information about how to cope with the world; truth of knowledge depends on success one has in engaging with world, on what works
- Charles Peirce (1839-1914)
Reasons Why Psychology IS Claimed a Science
- Human Mind and Scientific Method
(1) Psychology as continuation of old tradition of mental and moral philosophy
(2) scientific method would be applied to study of human mind and because of this, psychology would Jon natural sciences
Reasons Why Psychology IS Claimed a Science
- Science is Defined By Method Rather Than by Subject Matter
- whether or not discipline is a science depends on research methods used and not on topic investigated
- psychology uses scientific method –> science
Reasons Why Psychology IS Claimed a Science
- Scientific Method has not led psychologists down
- reasons why psychologists keep on using scientific method:
- systematicity and cumulativeness of knowledge
- use of well-defined methods
- clarity
- prediction
- knowledge is revisable
- comparison with pseudoscience
- acceptable progress so far
Reasons Why Psychology IS NOT Claimed a Science
- Stereotypicallyl view of scientist vs. stereotypical view of psychologist
- first impression about psychologist will not be that of scientist
Reasons Why Psychology IS NOT Claimed a Science
- psychology researchers vs. psychology practitioners
- Professional psychologists largely outnumber psychology researchers, and they are users scientific knowledge rather than creators of such knowledge
Reasons Why Psychology IS NOT Claimed a Science
- psychology findings are easy to understand
- psychology seen as accessible because research can give us insights that can be easy to relate to, there will be resonance between intuition and knowledge
