PSYCO212 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Pseudoscience
23 Jan 2018
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Document Summary
Scienti c research is a method of inquiry (approach of asking and answering questions) Intuition is personal judgement, that is affected by cognitive and motivational biases, to draw conclusions about the world. Drawing conclusions about the world based on ideas presented by an authority. The scienti c approach draws conclusions about the world based on careful logic and systematic observation. Empiricism = formulate hypothesis + collect data + analyze results: knowledge based on systematic observations. (1) allows for replication, (2) re ning theory, (3) open system to debate/ challenge falsi able ideas, (4) submission for peer review which is an evaluation by a panel of experts. Beware of pseudoscience: hypotheses generated are not typically testable, if scientific tests are reported, the methodology is not scientific and validity of data is questionable, supportive evidence is anecdotal; doesn"t cite scientific references, claims ignore conflicting evidence. !1: claims are never revised, claims tend to be vague, and appeal to pre-conceived ideas.
