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Psychology: What is a science? Parts 1, 2,3 and 4.
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What is a science? Includes, -Behaviourism. -Cognitivism. -Positivism.
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PS1010; Methods and practice of psychological inquiryWhat is a science? (Part 1):
Psychology is based on research:
Research involves;
-Asking questions and making predictions about psychological
phenomena.
-Gathering evidence in the form of data using systematic and
consistent methods.
-Developing explanations (theories) that are consistent with this
evidence.
What is science?
Many have tried to answer the question (Ladyman, 2000), ‘which
activities can be called science and which are non-science
pseudoscience?’.
In order to answer this we must define what a science is; by
theorizing and reasoning about it, and by studying what people who
are recognized scientists do.
Unfortunately there is no simple answer to said question, and views
about what a science is differ. There is no single ‘scientific method’.
-Positivism; Fact finding:
Positivism is a collection of approaches with a big impact on
psychological research. Traditionally positivism asserts that facts
must be gained by direct observation.
Early scepticism about hypothetical concepts that can’t be directly
measured.
-What about studying personality, motivation, or intelligence?
-Can we directly measure these things?
-There is also some scepticism about the usefulness of participants’
own accounts.
Psychologists have tended to more away from this idea.
-Positivism; Correct method:
Facts must be collected according to strict rules:
-Correct method always emphasised.
-Scientific methods are different from those creating ‘common
sense’ knowledge.
-Quantitative data must be used.
, PS1010; Methods and practice of psychological inquiry
-Hypothesis testing is needed.
Determining facts with correct method brings objectivity:
-Freedom from bias and unaffected by characteristics of people
determining them.
E.g. How can we determine distance between two objects and
ensure this is objective?
-Positivism; Creating universal laws:
Facts are combined into theories explaining psychological
phenomena.
Causality established by finding ‘constant conjunction’ between
variables.
Finding ‘constant conjunction’ requires experimentation.
Replication (repeating of experiments) of findings shows they are
trustworthy.
Nothing else is needed, or can legitimately be used, to determine
universal laws of human behaviour.
So, no role in theory building for:
-Common sense’.
-Knowledge of context.
-Experience of researchers.
-Interpretation.
What is a science? (Part 2):
-Problems with positivism 1:
Is ‘constant conjunction’ really all we need to establish causality?
John Hughes’ traffic light example illustrates this.
-Visitors from another planet come to earth to observe and
understand things. They are scientists so they wish to observe and
also to explain (generate and test theories). They notice that there
is a reliable relationship between red traffic lights and cars stopping.
For positivism, this is ‘constant conjunction’ and therefore causality
can be inferred.
-Problems with positivism 2:
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