CRIM 300W Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Tabula Rasa, Religious Fanaticism, Demonology
5 Dec 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Collection of info to test research hypotheses: 4. What is a theory: a set of concepts linked together y a series of statements to explain why an event or phenomenon occurs. Almost all behaviour has multiple causes: intimidate partner violence, can"t say one thing is the cause. Scientific and non-scientific theories: examples of pseudo-science, phrenology. Falsification principle/testability: karl popper"s phil of science: a claim is scientific only to the extent that can be falsified, hypothesis that atoms move bc they are pushed by small invisible immaterial demons . Pseudo science: existence of demons cannot be proven false (cannot be tested, our theories can be proven wrong bc we can learn and change theories as time goes by. Criteria for determining causality: we use one iv to dv, x predictor or iv, y explanatory or dv, 3 criteria, 1. Temporal ordering (x before y: poverty and crime.
