PSYB32H3 Lecture Notes - Cultural-Historical Psychology, System On A Chip, Emo

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13 Oct 2012
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What is a theory in general: a set of concepts or propositions that describe and explain some aspect of experience or belief. Purpose: to organize thinking of a broad range of topics; organize our knowledge. What is a scientific theory: a public pronouncement indicating what a scientist believes about his or her area specific area of investigation. What are the characteristics of a good theory: parsimony. Concise, yet able to explain a wide range of phenomena. Theory with the fewest principles wins as long as it can explain a wide range of things: falsifiability. Can confirm or disconfirm: heuristic value. Can be applied to unknown situations and cases. Theory isn"t limited to only the situation for which the theory was devised, but can make predictions in unknown cases. Slide 3 questions and controversies about human development. Whether the child is born inherently good or evil: tabula rasa. Notion that a child is blank slate at birth.