Clarity: Research clarifies questions about the world and phenomena.
Understanding Disorders: It aids in understanding medical or psychological disorders.
Efficacy Determination: Helps establish whether treatments work effectively.
Reality Check: Provides evidence, as perceptions can be misleading; research supplies factual proof.
Definition: Mental shortcuts that help simplify decision-making and understanding.
Definition: Systematic tendencies in thinking that affect judgments and decisions.
Description: People judge probabilities based on how easily examples come to mind.
Example: The surge in news about home foreclosures makes people overestimate the prevalence of foreclosure events due to easier recall of such instances.
Description: Judging the likelihood of events based on how similar they are to typical cases.
Example: In a series of coin tosses, a random series of heads and tails might be viewed as less probable than all heads due to its resemblance to expected randomness.
Description: Favoring information that confirms existing beliefs.
Example: A journalist may only seek out sources that support their previous opinions, ignoring counterarguments.
Description: Overestimating the lasting impact of emotional experiences.
Example: People believe they would be highly upset for a prolonged time if their political candidate loses, but they often recover quickly.
Description: Perception that past events were more predictable than they were.
Example: A bettor might insist that they knew the winning horse would win after the fact, claiming they should have bet on it.
Nonscientific Approaches:
Method of Tenacity: Accepting information as true due to longstanding belief or superstition.
Method of Intuition: Accepting information based on gut feelings or hunches.
Method of Authority: Relying on information from experts, acknowledging that not all experts provide accurate information.
Rational Method: Seeking answers through logical reasoning, starting from true premises to derive conclusions.
Empirical Method: Gaining knowledge through direct observation, though it can be influenced by beliefs and is often time-consuming.
Limitations: May lead to persistent inaccuracies; beliefs can resist change despite contradictory evidence.
Limitations: Lacks a systematic approach to differentiate between accurate and inaccurate knowledge.
Limitations: Can sometimes perpetuate misinformation; depends heavily on the perceived expertise of the individual.
Limitations: Conclusion validity is contingent upon the truth of the premise; logical errors can arise in reasoning processes.
Limitations: Subject to misinterpretation, personal biases, and may pose risks in certain observations.
Method & Way of Knowing:
Tenacity: Through habit or superstition.
Intuition: Hunch or feeling.
Authority: From experts.
Rationalism: Through reasoning.
Empiricism: Based on observations.
Overview: An organized approach that derives answers through systematic investigation.
Steps:
Observation: Begin with observing behaviors or phenomena.
Hypothesis Formation: Develop tentative explanations.
Prediction Generation: Develop predictions based on the hypothesis.
Testing: Evaluate those predictions through planned observations.
Evaluation: Use observations to support or refine the hypothesis.
Definition: Generalization from a small set of specific observations to a broader conclusion.
Definition: Formulating specific conclusions based on a general statement.
Variables: Conditions or characteristics that can vary across different individuals (e.g., health status, weather).
Hypothesis: A statement that explains the relationship between variables; serves as a predictive tool for testing.
Empirical Nature: Driven by observations and evidence.
Publicity: Results are accessible for verification by the scientific community.
Objectivity: Focuses on minimizing biases in study outcomes.
Characteristics:
Empirical: Based on structured observations.
Public: Open for communal evaluation.
Objective: Assures outcomes are unbiased.
To achieve a comprehensive understanding of the world via discovery and description.
Realism: True existence of the external world.
Rationality: Logic applies universally.
Regularity: Consistent laws govern the world.
Discoverability: We can uncover causal relationships.
Causality: Events are causally linked.
Theories: Statements about relationships containing at least one unobserved concept; must be falsifiable, guide research, and have predictive capability.
Processing Facts into Theories: Involves observing patterns, forming laws, and synthesizing these into coherent theories.
Definition: Distinction based on hypothesis testability; scientific theories evolve based on evidence, while pseudoscientific ideas often disregard contradicting results.
Steps include:
Finding a compelling research idea.
Hypothesis formation and variable measurement.
Participant selection and ethical considerations.
Choosing research strategy and design.
Conducting the study and evaluating data for reporting results.