Psychology as a Science

Sources of Knowledge

• Empiricism: Knowledge derived from senses/experiences; denies innate knowledge.
• Authority/Expert: Knowledge from specialists; historical and scientific knowledge.
• Reasoning: Using known facts to derive new facts; depends on correct premises.
  • Deductive
  • Inductive
• Intuition: Insights that 'pop' into consciousness independent of reasoning.
• Common Sense: Shared belief acceptable to a group; can be misleading.
• Scientific Approach

Scientific Methods

• Psychology is a science of behavior adhering to scientific principles.

Characteristics of Science

• Objectivity: Accepting facts without biases.
• Operational definition: Defining terms in context.
• Replicability: Ability to reproduce similar results.
• Control: Holding extraneous variables constant.
• Systematic: Orderly activities (hypothesis, data collection, analysis).
• Accepts natural causes.
• Verifiability/Testability: Concrete factual observations.

Para-Psychology

• Studies extrasensory perception (ESP) or anomalous cognition.
• Investigates paranormal phenomena.
• Not widely accepted in mainstream psychology.
• Distinction between para-psychology and pseudo-psychology.

Paranormal Abilities

• Telepathy: Perceiving others' thoughts.
• Clairvoyance: Perceiving objects/events without sensory contact.
• Precognition: Knowing events before they happen.
• Palmistry: Foretelling the future through palm study.
• Psychokinesis: Moving objects through mental power.