History and Philosophy of Science (copy)

Scientific activity

• has helped to establish the evidence we use to guide practice in the delivery of nursing care.

• We desire to identify the cause, the effect and the significant difference that an intervention can make to increase the longevity of life.

Science

is method for describing, explaining and predicting causes or outcomes of interventions

Scientific Activity

means those activities leading to the systematic knowledge of the physical or material world, largely consisting of observation and experimentation

• it has improved quality of life.

• has satisfied human needs for creative work,

• a sense of order and

• the desire to understand the unknown

Scientific activity has persisted because:

Scientific Discipline

• Means identifying nursing’s unique knowledge for the care of patients, families, and communities.

  • Nurses can conduct clinical and basic nursing research to establish the scientific base for the care of individuals, families, communities and populations

philosophical perspective

The particular ______ selected to answer these questions will influence how scientists perform scientific activities, how they interpret outcomes and even what they regard as science and knowledge

• Rationalism

• Empiricism

Two competing PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE :

epistemology

Rationalism and Empiricism is a type of _____ or theory of knowledge for understanding how to uncover the answer to a question

Rationalism

• This type of epistemology emphasizes the importance of a priori reasoning as the appropriate method for advancing knowledge

Priori reasoning

A ________ utilizes deductive logic by reasoning from the cause to an effect or from a generalization to particular instance

theory-then-research strategy

• Theoretical assertions derived by deductive reasoning are the subjected to experimental testing to corroborate the theory

  • This approach is _________

    • If the research findings fail to correspond with the theoretical assertions, additional research is conducted or modifications are made in the theory and further tests are devised otherwise, the theory is discarded in favor of a alternative explanation (Gale, 1979; Zetterberg, 1966)

Example : to reason that a lack of social support (cause) will result in hospital readmission (effect).

Empiricism

• This view is based on the central idea that scientific knowledge can be derived only from sensory experience(posteriori reasoning)

• Bacon believed that scientific truth was discovered through generalizing observed facts in the natural world

the inductive method

• the collection of facts precedes attempts to formulate generalizations

• the research-then-theory strategy.

• Example: formulating diagnosis

The strict empiricist view

is reflected in the work of the behaviorist Skinner.

Skinner

• In a 1950 paper, ______ asserted that advances in the science of psychology could be expected if scientists would focus on the collection of empirical data

• He cautioned against drawing premature inferences(conclusion) and proposed a moratorium on theory building until further facts were collected

empirical research

1st half of the century:

• Philosophers focused on the analysis of theory structure, whereas scientists focused on ________

analysis of theory structure

1st half of the century:

• Philosophers focused on the ________, whereas scientists focused on empirical research

minimal interest

1st half of the century:

• _______ in the history of science, the nature of scientific discovery, or the similarities between the philosophical view of science and the scientific methods

Positivism

1st half of the century:

• a term first used by Comte, emerged as the dominant view of modern science (Gale, 1979).

scientific knowledge

1st half of the century:

• Modern logical positivists believed that empirical research and logical analysis (deductive and inductive) were two approaches that would produce ___________ (Brown, 1977).

logical empiricists

1st half of the century:

• The _________ offered a more lenient view of logical positivism and argued that theoretical propositions (proposition affirms or denies something) must be tested through observation and experimentation (Brown, 1977).

positivist position

Emergent Views of Science and Theory in the Late Twentieth Century:

• In the latter years of the twentieth century, several authors presented analyses challenging the ________, thus offering the basis for a new perspective of science.

Foucault

Emergent Views of Science and Theory in the Late Twentieth Century:

• ______ (1973) published his analysis of the epistemology (knowledge) of human sciences from the 17th to the 19th century.

  • His major thesis stated that empirical knowledge was arranged in different patterns at a given time and in a given culture and that humans where emerging as objects of study.

Schutz

Emergent Views of Science and Theory in the Late Twentieth Century:

• In The Phenomenology of the Social World, ________ (1967) argued that scientists seeking to understand the social world could not cognitively know an external world that is independent of their own life experiences.

Edmund Husserl

Emergent Views of Science and Theory in the Late Twentieth Century:

• Phenomenology, set forth by ___________ (1859 to 1938) proposed that the objectivism of science could not provide an adequate apprehension of the world (Husserl 1931, 1970).

phenomenological approach

Emergent Views of Science and Theory in the Late Twentieth Century:

• A ___________ reduces observations or text to the meanings of phenomena independent of their particular context. This approach focuses on the lived meaning of experiences.

process of continuing research

Emergent Views of Science and Theory in the Late Twentieth Century:

• One of the major perspectives in the new philosophy emphasized science as a __________ rather than a product focused on findings.

• Philosophy

• Nursing Conceptual Models

• Nursing Theories

• Middle Range Theories

Four kinds of theoretical works

Philosophy

• Sets forth the meaning of phenomena through analysis, reasoning and logical argument or presentation

• Early works that predate or introduce the nursing theory era have contributed to knowledge development by providing direction or forming a basis for subsequent development

Nursing Conceptual Models

• Comprises the works of grand theories or pioneers in nursing

• Provides a distinct frame of reference for its adherence that tells them how to observe and interpret the phenomena of interest to the discipline

• The nursing models of these grand theories are comprehensive and include their perspective on each of the metaparadigm concepts :people, environment, health and nursing

Nursing Theories

• Derived from works in other disciplines and related to nursing from earlier nursing philosophies and theories, from grand nursing theories or from nursing conceptual models

• Less abstract than a grand theory but not as specific as middle range theory

Middle Range Theories

• Narrower focus yet and is much more concrete than grand theory or nursing theory in its level of abstraction

• More precise and focus on answering specific factors such as age group of the patient, the family situation, the health condition, the location of the patient and most importantly, the action of the nurse

• Address the specifics of nursing situations within the perspective of the model or theory from which they derived.

• Hildegard E. Peplau: Interpersonal Relation in Nursing

• Ida Jean Orlando: Dynamic-Nurse Relationship

• Joyce Travelbee: Human to Human Relationship

Examples of Theories and Middle-Range Nursing Theories

• Person

• Environment

• Nursing

• Health

The Metaparadigms of Nursing:

Person

the recipient of nursing care like individuals, families, and communities.

Environment

the internal and external aspects of life that influence the person.

Nursing

interventions of the nurse rendering care in support of, or in cooperation with the client.

Health

the holistic level of wellness that the person experiences.

• Emotional

• Occupational

• Intellectual

• Environmental

• Financial

• Social

• Physical

• Spiritual

Dimensions of Wellness: