PSY 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Falsifiability
Document Summary
"finding methods to keep us from fooling ourselves" Characteristics of science that work against human tendencies: scientific knowledge is tentative and open to revision, scientists strive for humility, scientists are skeptical, scientific explanations cannot be opinion - they must be supported by evidence. Theory in psychology: theory: ideas that explain observations, theories account for existing data and generate predictions about how new data that we have not observed yet will turn out, heuristically useful. The purpose of a theory is to: organize observations, understand the nature of phenomena, explain relationships, make predictions. Definition: theory is a system of interrelated ideas that is used to explain a set of observations: logical system of constructs and hypotheses based on observations, constructs are variables in theories, hypotheses connect constructs and account for relationships. Critical thinking: textbook: set of skills for evaluating all clams in an open-minded and careful fashion.
