PHSI 208 Lecture Notes - Trichotillomania, Zoophilia, Testability
Document Summary
There is less than total agreement about how ab beh ought to be studied and what are the facts of the field. Science is the pursuit of systematized knowledge through observation. Comes from latin term to know refers to both a method and to a goal. Its always imp for scientific observations and explanations to be testable and reliable (replicable) A scientific approach requires 1st that propositions and ideas be states in a clear and precise way. Must be testable in the public arena. If the event cannot be reproduced scientists become wary of the legitimacy of the original observation. A theory is a set of propositions meant to explain a class of phenomena. A primary goal of science is to advance theories to account for data often by proposing cause effect relationships. A theory permits the generation of hypotheses ---expectations about what should occur if a theory is true ---to be testes in research.