Summary
research 320 chapter 1-7 summary
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- RES 320 (ARCH320)
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- University Of Pretoria (UP)
Summary of 75 pages for the course RES 320 at UP (chapter 1-7 summary)
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Research, Methods, Designs and AnalysisChapter 1: Understanding the Scientific Method
Introduction
We continually encounter problems and questions relating to thoughts and behavior.
In an attempt to gain information about mental processes and behaviors.
In order to learn more about these phenomenons, we must engage in scientific research.
Science does not provide ‘proof’. It provides evidence, often strong.
Methods of acquiring knowledge
We acquire a great deal of information from events we experience as we go through life. Experts also
provide us with information. Although earlier approaches do not systematically contribute to scientific
knowledge they do form part of a process. They can be seen as a starting point. The scientific
approach is special; it is a hybrid approach to generating and justifying knowledge claims and to
accumulating this knowledge over time.
Intuition
Intuition is defined as the act or process of coming to direct knowledge or certainty without reasoning
or inferring. Intuition relies on justification of “I feel it to be true to me”. The problem: it does not
provide a mechanism for separating accurate from inaccurate knowledge. It us sometimes used in
science mostly in the process of forming hypotheses. Some hypotheses arise from hunches and a new
way of looking at the literature. Belief might be derived from what others have said, personal
experience or any other factors.
Authority
Authority refers to the acceptance of information or facts stated by another person who is a highly
respected source. The problem: the facts stated might be inaccurate. Authority can also be used at the
design stage of a study: you might consult someone who is considered an authority in the field and
gain input. Facts and information should still be subject to testing.
Rationalism
This approach uses reasoning to arrive at knowledge and assumes that valid knowledge is acquired
because of the reasoning process is used. There is a danger in relying solely on rationalism for
acquiring knowledge, because it is not unusual for two well-meaning and honest individuals to reach
different conclusions. However, it is still a vital element in the scientific process. Scientists make use of
reasoning to derive hypotheses and to identify the outcomes that would indicate truth of falsity of the
hypotheses. By itself it is not sufficient.
,Empiricism
Facts that concur with experience are accepted and those that do not are rejected. Naïve empiricism
can be problematic, however, empiricism in its more realistic form can be very useful, and is an
important part of the scientific approach. Empiricism as a systematic and well-developed philosophy
that can be traced to john Locke and David Hume. All knowledge, they argued, is based on experience.
The origin of all knowledge is from our senses. Our senses imprint ideas on our brains and then are
further worked upon through cognitive processes.
Several dangers exist when the empirical approach is used alone. Past experiences and motivation
at time of perception can drastically alter what we see. Memory is not constant, we tend to forget
things, and distortions do take place.
Empiricism is vital in science but the observations must be conducted under controlled conditions and
systematic strategies must be used to minimize bias and maximize objectivity.
Science
Science – Latin word scire – ‘to know’.
Science is a very important way of acquiring knowledge. It is superior as it is designed to
systematically to produce reliable and valid knowledge about the natural world. Science and its
methods continue to develop and change.
Induction and deduction
Induction is a reasoning process that involves going from the specific to the general. Moving from
particular observation to a much broader and general claim. It was the dominant scientific method at a
stage.
It is still used frequently. An example: social loafing.
Inductive reasoning is also seen in the use of statistical analysis in psychological research. When
researchers rely on samples and generalize to populations, they are using inductive reasoning. It is
therefore an integral part of science.
Deduction (Aristotle defines) refers to going form the general to the specific. When researchers
develop hypotheses, they routinely deduce the observable consequences that must occur if they are
going to claim (after collecting data) that the hypothesis is supported or not.
Science makes use of both reasoning.
Hypothesis Testing
Refers to a process, by which an investigator formulates a hypothesis to explain some phenomenon
that has been observed and then compares the hypothesis with the facts,
The process of scientific discovery is cautious and rigorous, not by abstaining from hypothesis but by
rigorously comparing the hypothesis with the facts and by resolutely rejecting all that the comparison
does not confirm.
According to this approach, scientific activity involves the testing of hypotheses derived from theory or
experience.
Very important part of scientific activity,
Hypothesis testing as a scientific methodology was associated with the logical positivist
movement.
,Logical positivism was the outgrowth of the group scholars. They were known as the Vienna circle.
One of the central views of the Vienna circle as that a statement is meaningful only when it is verifiable
by observation or experience. They believed the most important aspect of science was the verification
of hypotheses by objective observation or experience.
They ultimately hoped to show that the natural world followed universal scientific laws.
This approach was criticized for being based on a logical fallacy. Popper argued that science should
rest on deductively valid form of reasoning. One can claim conclusively using deductive reasoning that
a general law is falsified if the data do not support the hypothesis – this is what popper advocated,
Poppers approach was known as falsification.
One major strength if this approach is that it helps eliminate false theories from science. However was
also criticized because it focused only on falsification and completely rejected induction. Induction
however is required in order to claim what theories are best supported and to what degree and
therefore what to believe. It was also criticized because even if the data appear to falsify a hypothesis,
one cannot conclude that the theory is necessarily false. That’s because you have to make many
assumptions during the hypothesis testing process, and one of those assumptions rather than the
hypotheses may be false. This notion that hypothesis cannot be tested in isolation is called Duhem-
Quine principle.
A key point is that psychologists rely on a hybrid approach to hypothesis testing. That’s includes
probabilistic thinking, preponderance of evidence and a mixture if the logical positivists verification
approach and poppers falsifications approach.
Naturalism
Since the 1960s we have entered a methodological era in science that has evolved from a movement in
the philosophy of science called naturalism. Naturalism rejects what is called foundational
epistemology, which assumes that knowledge is a matter of deductive reasoning and that knowledge
is fully certain (math’s). Naturalism takes the position that science should be studied and evaluated
empirically.
Naturalism is pragmatic. When it comes to judging scientific beliefs, we should continually evaluate
theories based on empirical adequacy.
Does the empirical data support the data?
Does the theory make accurate predictions?
Does the theory provide a good causal explanation of phenomenon?
Approaches to science change over time. It uses many approaches to be reliable and valid.
Kuhn and Paradigms
Thomas Kuhn – conducted historical analysis of science. He suggested that science reflects two types
of activities.
Normal science: governed by single paradigm or a set of values, concepts and perceptions and
practices shared by a community that forms a particular view of reality.
A paradigm – a framework of thought or beliefs by which you interpret reality.
Mature sciences spend there time on normal science.
Anomalies and criticisms develop overtime and revolutionary science occurs.
Replacement of one paradigm with another is significant – a set of beliefs is replaced with another set
of beliefs.
After a revolutionary period, science enters a new period of normal science – this process is continued
throughout history.
, Feyerabrend anarchistic Theory of science
Was a philosopher of science? Looked at various methodological approaches – realized that each was
lacking.
He argued that there is no such thing as the method of science. He also argued that science included
many irrational practices and was partially the result of the operation of power. He also suggested that
scientific knowledge was not nearly as secure as scientists would have the public belief.
Key conclusion to draw from him critique: science might not be as simple and formulaic as it appears.
Science is complex.
What exactly is science
The logical positivists had hoped verifications would be the criterion. They hoped that a single, unified
method could be identified.
Popper claimed the criterion was falsification. For Kuhn it was the values, interactions, technical
language, key concepts and activities of science.
Some scientists seek something called the new experimentalism. According to this approach
experimentation can have a life of its own independent of theory, and scientific progress is seen as the
steady buildup of experimental knowledge.
Multiple methods and practices used by successful scientists can contribute in complementary ways to
the development of secure scientific knowledge.
Scientists must be skeptical, creative and systematic. They must identify problems, question current
solutions that aren’t working, creative and systematically come up with new solutions and most
importantly subject these solutions to empirical testing.
Chalmers: science will consist of some specific aims to arrive at knowledge of some specific kind,
methods for arriving at those aims together with the standard for judging the extent to which they
have been met, and specific facts and theories that represent the current play as for as the realization
of the aim is.
Science: preferred way of acquiring reliable, valid and practical knowledge about the natural
world. In order for it to be successful it must always conduct research ethically, must critically
self-examine its practices to determine what is working and what is not and it must engage in
ongoing learning and improvement.
Basic assumptions underlying scientific research
Uniformity or Regularity in Nature
Science searches for regularities in nature. Science is a search for order, for uniformities, for lawful
relations among the events in nature.
If there were no uniformity in nature, there would be no understanding, explanation or knowledge.
Without regulatory, theories, laws and generalizations could not be developed.
Determinism (implicit in the assumption of uniformity) – the belief that there are causes, or
determinants, of mental processes and behavior.
Probabilistic causes – causes that usually produce outcomes. However, the search for more certain,
fuller, and often more complex causation will continue.
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