PSY1HPM Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Demarcation Problem, Radiography, Psychodynamics

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HPM Lecture 7 - PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY (1)
Key Knowledge & Understanding
At the end of this series you should be able to answer the following questions:
How do we gain knowledge about the world?
How can we justify such knowledge?
What is a scientific explanation?
How can we represent knowledge, and do our representations determine what we can know?
Are there facts and natural laws? Is it possible to know the truth?
How do we define the boundary between science and nonscience?
Is Psychology a science and if so why?
How does science progress?
How do we know what we Know?
Epistemology deals with the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge.
It addresses the questions: What is knowledge? How is knowledge acquired? What do people know? How do we know what we
know? Why do we know what we know?
Why is this important to you as a psychologist?
-Everyone thinks that they know and understand psychological phenomena
-Everyone has an intrinsic “folk psychology”
-Often, we do not have access to the things that actually determine our psychological actions as they occur at a level which we
do not have access to or are unaware of.
Epistemology is typically divided into two categories
The first, propositional knowledge, can be thought of "knowledge that" as opposed to "knowledge how." In mathematics, for
instance, it is knowledge that 1 + 1 = 2, but there is also knowledge of how to perform mathematics.
The second is personal knowledge. Personal knowledge is gained experientially. For example, the theoretical knowledge of the
physics involved in maintaining a state of balance when riding a bicycle cannot be substituted for the practical (personal) knowledge
gained when practicing cycling.
Epistemology also deals with statements of Belief
Knowledge entails belief, and so one’s statement of belief cannot conflict with one’s knowledge.
Conversely, knowledge about a belief does not necessarily entail an endorsement of its truth.
For example, "I know about the religion of Islam, but I do not believe in it," is a coherent statement.
So how can we know anything? A Definition of Knowledge
We must have a way to evaluate the quality and the veracity of our beliefs in their path to
knowledge
Various approaches to knowledge have been proposed through the years
 Tenacity  Intuition  Authority  Rationalism  Empiricism  Science
Approaches to Knowledge: Tenacity
-Accept as “truth” ideas that have been around a long time or have been repeated over and over
again.
-Examples: Everyone knows that the world is flat and that if you go too far, you fall off the edge! Everyone knows that God created the
universe in 6 days! Everyone one knows that the sun rotates around the earth! Everyone knows that you only use 10% of your brain
power! Everyone knows that the number of neurons that you get at birth is the only ones you’ll ever have! Everyone knows that if you do
it too much you’ll go blind!!
-Problem: Ideas are not subjected to sceptical, critical, or objective analysis
Approaches to Knowledge: Intuition
-Knowledge is gained without effort, and without the sensory systems
-Examples: Extra-sensory perception, Psychic or religious revelation
-Problems: Even Athena Star woman© gets it wrong How do we know that what the gods have revealed is not distorted or misunderstood
by their messenger?
Approaches to Knowledge: Authority
- Knowledge is derived from others who are presumed to have direct access to truth
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Document Summary

Hpm lecture 7 - philosophical foundations of psychology (1) At the end of this series you should be able to answer the following questions: Epistemology deals with the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. Everyone thinks that they know and understand psychological phenomena. Often, we do not have access to the things that actually determine our psychological actions as they occur at a level which we do not have access to or are unaware of. The first, propositional knowledge, can be thought of "knowledge that" as opposed to "knowledge how. " In mathematics, for instance, it is knowledge that 1 + 1 = 2, but there is also knowledge of how to perform mathematics. For example, the theoretical knowledge of the physics involved in maintaining a state of balance when riding a bicycle cannot be substituted for the practical (personal) knowledge gained when practicing cycling.

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