Research Methods Basic Research #1

What are some requirements for a study to be scientific?

systematic empiricism, public verification, solvable problem

The requirement that scientific studies require public verification really implies that ___ is really important to science.

replication

Which source of knowledge tends to be the most tentative and self-correcting?

science

What are the parts of the scientific attitude?

humility, skepticism, curiosity

The reason we see parapsychology (e.g., the study of ESP) as a pseudo science rather than a science is that the people who promote parapsychology:

1. tend to present biased evidence

2. make no real effort to falsify or refute their theories

3. work with the same unchanging theories over time

"They say" that we only use about 10% of our brains. This, of course, is a false belief -- we use 100% of our brains. However, false beliefs like this persist because of the method of:

tenacity

Ture or False: When we say that science is theoretical, we are saying that once we develop theories, we tend to keep these and not change them.

False

We begin scientific studies with an initial statement that describes the expected outcome of the study -- typically describing the relationship between variables. This is the ___ of the study.

hypothesis

The scientific method is based on the method of:

empiricism

When given the choice, scientists value ideas that are more simple, or _____.

parsimonious