Lecture 1 Outline: Scientific Thinking
8/22/05
- This is Different!
- In most other classes...
- In this class...
- Research & Beyond
- Information gathering
- Reading & interpreting other people’s research
- Critical thinking
- Ways of Knowing
- Authority
- Reason/Logic
- Experience
- Attributes of Science
- Deterministic
- Objective
- Data-driven
- Conclusions Subject to Revision
- Empirical Questions
- Pseudoscience
- Appears scientific on the surface, but is often used to make money or promote agendas
- Example: John Gray, author of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
- Associates with true science
- Relies on anecdotal evidence
- Sidesteps disproof
- Tries to turn something very complex into something very simple
- Goals of Psychological Research
- Describe behavior
- Predict behavior
- Explaining behavior
- Controlling behavior
Research Methods Page
Last updated: 8/22/05