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How do we know things? The Scientific Method

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Title: How do we know things? The Scientific Method


1
How do we know things?The Scientific Method
  • Psych 231 Research Methods in Psychology

2
Announcements
  • Why is this page upside down?
  • Does the course webpage show up in ReggieNet?
  • Quiz 1 is due Friday Aug 21st _at_ midnight
  • Anybody try quiz 1 yet? Does it work okay?
  • Lab news
  • This week labs are in their usual places, next
    week they will be meeting in the library. Milner
    164D computer classroom

3
The Science of Mythbusting
  • Are elephants afraid of mice? long (8 min)
  • Accept the myth or Test the myth
  • Testable hypotheses is the phenomenon something
    that can be observed and tested
  • Method what is best way to make the
    observations to be tested?
  • Control groups comparisons are key
  • Replication are you more likely to believe
    something that happens once, or happens multiple
    times

4
Exercise How do we know?
  • Write down two things that you know.
  • Write down HOW you know those things.

5
Methods of Inquiry
Type of knowledge
Objective
Subjective
having existence outside of a persons mind
(real)
existing in a persons mind
Analysis
Ways of knowing
Tenacity Faith Intuition
Authority Instruction Regulation (rules laws)
Acceptance
Reality is not this clear cut Psychology uses
objective techniques to examine what are often
subjective things, so there are often some
underlying assumptions that you need to keep in
mind (later in the course indirect measures,
operational definitions)
6
Methods of Inquiry
  • The Scientific Method
  • A method used to test and analyze claims about
    behavior
  • Uses systematic observation and experimentation
  • 4 Cannons of the Scientific method
  • Empiricism, Determinism, Parsimony, Testability
  • A 6 step process (your book breaks it into 7
  • slightly different steps, Figure 2.1)

7
Scientific Method
  • Step 1 Observation (Empiricism)
  • Pay attention to the world around you, look for
    generalizations
  • write down two generalizations that you have
    observed about peoples behavior
  • Two classes of generalizations
  • Descriptive generalizations just describe how
    it is/what was seen, how frequent, without making
    predictions
  • Cause and effect generalizations makes
    predictions about the observed relationship
    between two (or more) things.
  • (Determinism phenomenon have identifiable causes)

8
Scientific Method
  • Step 2 Develop a theory or hypothesis
  • Identify the variables associated with your
    observations
  • An explanation for the observed behavior(s)
  • How are the variables related to one another?
  • May be based on past research, common sense,
    intuition, logic, etc.

9
Scientific Method
  • Step 3 Generate a testable prediction
  • Testability Need to specify how your hypothesis
    can be tested through observation.
  • The relevant variables must be defined and
    observable.
  • Falsification is at the heart of the scientific
    method
  • Scientists dont try to prove a theory, but
    rather set out to refute (disprove) theories
  • Refutable hypotheses - must be stated in a way
    that allows the potential for it to be wrong

Karl Popper wiki
10
Scientific Method
  • Step 4 Make systematic observations
  • Observational and experimental methods
  • Which variables will we examine?
  • How do we measure these variables?
  • Which variables can we systematically manipulate?
  • What variables need to be controlled?
  • Were (from whom) will we collect the observations?

11
Scientific Method
  • Step 5 Evaluate your evidence
  • Refutes theory
  • Supports theory (not proves the theory)
  • Leads to the revision of the theory
  • Consider alternative theories
  • There are always alternative explanations
  • Parsimony Simple explanations are preferred over
    more complex ones

12
Scientific Method
  • Step 6 Repeat

observations
13
Next time
  • Psychology as a science
  • Developing your research ideas
  • Reviewing the literature
  • Moving from ideas to hypotheses
  • Chapter 2
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