PSYA01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Internal Validity, Psychological Trauma, Dependent And Independent Variables
Document Summary
Dogmatists thought the best way to understand illness was to develop theories about the body"s functions. Empiricists thought that the best way to understand illness was to observe sick people. Today the word dogmatism is used to describe the tendency for people to cling to their assumptions. And the word empiricism is sued describe the belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation. Empiricism is the essential element of the scientific method, which is a set of principles about the appropriate relationship between ideas and evidence. Plurality should only be posited when necessary, which is essentially the way people in the middle. Theories are ideas about how and why things work the way they do. Most theories make predictions about what we should and should not be able to observe in the world. A hypothesis is a falsifiable prediction made by a theory. The word falsifiable is a critical part of that definition.
