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Question 1

criteria for whether a subject is scientific

Answer 1

1. objectivity
2. testing theoretical predictions
3. falsifiability
4. paradigm
5. replicability

Question 2

features of science - objectivity

Answer 2

researchers remain unbiased in their work
‘psychology meets this sometimes’
all sources of bias are minimised
some methods more objective than others eg. brain scans
eg. thematic analysis, case studies are subjective!

Question 2

features of science - testing theoretical predictions

Answer 2

‘psychology does meet this’
theory - general laws that allow us to explain certain behaviours
theory construction - gathering evidence by directly observing + testing theories and proving or disproving predictions objectively

Question 3

features of science - testing theoretical predictions
why is it important to test a hypothesis

Answer 3

all research begins with a hypothesis
results mean you accept or reject the hypothesis
if your results support the hypothesis then you can use this evidence to support your theory construction

Question 4

features of science - falsifiability

Answer 4

• whether your theory is capable of being tested by observations/experiment
  -‘psych doesn’t meet this feature’
  Popper 1969 says that the point of a science is that we seek to disprove a theory and only accept it if we can’t disprove it
• so theories that are non-falsifiable are unscientific

Question 5

features of science - paradigms

Answer 5

• Kuhn 1962 believed that the most essential thing in a science is paradigm
  it is a shared set of assumptions + methods that support the subject
  so in a non scientific discipline there will be many explanations for 1 event

Question 6

3 distinct stages of development of a science:

Answer 6

1. pre-science - no paradigm exists. not everyone agrees on the subject
2. normal science- generally accepted paradigm that can explain + account for all findings
3. revolutionary science- evidence against old paradigm so it’s replaced by a new paradigm. paradigm shift

Question 7

features of science - replicability

Answer 7

• ability to be able to repeat study
  eg. experiments use standardised procedures
• researcher can establish reliability
  also impacts validity + researcher’s ability to be able to generalise findings to real life

Question 8

nominal data

Answer 8

data divided into categories
known as discrete data - Ps can only be put in 1 category
- gives researcher little detail

Question 9

ordinal data

Answer 9

data that has been ordered eg. ranked
- subjective and doesn’t have equal intervals
- not precise

Question 10

interval data

Answer 10

based on numerical scales in which the intervals are universal
each interval is precise eg, cm, weight