PSYC 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Falsifiability, Inductive Reasoning, Amnesia
30 Sep 2016
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Two core tenets of science: there are natural laws that govern the universe. Certain laws that govern our thoughts and behaviour: such laws are discoverable and testable. Test theories and laws to see if they"re true. Allows us to build up theories and test them. The scientific method uses: a combination of inductive and deductive reasoning called the hypothetico-deductive model, inductive reasoning involves making generalizations from specific observations. We don"t study every organism, we study a few and then make generalizations, laws or theories. Going from a specific sample of observations to generalizations: deductive reasoning applies general principles to specific cases. When we encounter a situation where the theory or law fits, we apply those laws/theories to the situation: model allows researchers to create and test theories of behaviour. To see if we can gain acceptance or if it will be refuted: deductive reasoning: from general too specific. But, if the general rule (premise) is wrong, the conclusion is wrong.
