PSYC 201W Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Paul Feyerabend, Thomas Kuhn, Pseudoscience

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 201W
• Professor: V.Gordon Rose

Document Summary

Determinism: belief that mental processes are fully caused by prior natural factors. Reality in nature: assumption that what we perceive is real. Dis(cid:272)overa(cid:271)ilit(cid:455): assu(cid:373)ptio(cid:374) that it"s possi(cid:271)le to dis(cid:272)over the regularities that e(cid:454)ist i(cid:374) (cid:374)ature. Naturalism: science should be studied and evaluated empirically (thomas kuhn and paul feyerabend) Science: multiple methods and practices used to develop secure scientific knowledge. Scientists must: be skeptical and systematic, identify problems, question current solutions that are not working; creatively and systematically come up with new solutions, subject these new solutions to empirical testing. Control: holding constant or eliminating the influence of extraneous variables. Allows for unambiguous claims about cause and effect. Pla(cid:272)e(cid:271)o effe(cid:272)t: i(cid:373)prove(cid:373)e(cid:374)t due to parti(cid:272)ipa(cid:374)ts" e(cid:454)pe(cid:272)tatio(cid:374)s for i(cid:373)prove(cid:373)e(cid:374)t, rather tha(cid:374) the actual treatment. Replication: reproduction of results in a new study. Reaso(cid:374)s for failure to repli(cid:272)ate: effe(cid:272)t does(cid:374)"t e(cid:454)ist, repli(cid:272)atio(cid:374) stud(cid:455) is (cid:374)ot a(cid:374) e(cid:454)a(cid:272)t repli(cid:272)atio(cid:374), effect may depend on context,