PSY 0010 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Nuremberg Code, Informed Consent, High Standard Manufacturing Company
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Section 1 - empiricism and the scientific method. Dogmatists (meaning belief ): are doctors who thought that the best way to understand illness was to develop theories about the body"s functions. Empiricists (meaning experience"): those who thought that the best way to understand illness was to observe sick people. Empiricism: the belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation. Only in the last millennium have people begun to trust their eyes and ears more than their elders. Scientific method: a procedure for finding truth by using empirical evidence. Theory: a hypothetical explanation of a natural phenomenon. Ex: we might theorize that bats navigate by making sounds and then listening for the echo, or that traumatic events cause the body to release chemicals that burn memories into the brain. Hypothesis: a falsifiable prediction made by a theory. No amount of experiment can ever prove me right, but a single experiment can prove me wrong albert einstein.