PSYCO105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Operational Definition, Seed, Skeptical Movement
Document Summary
Scientific skepticism: is the process of requiring compelling, supporting evidence before accepting claims about the world, challenges the viewpoint of others and giving a new idea. Extravagant claims: the more a claim contradicts established knowledge, the more persuasive the evidence needs to be before we assimilate the claim. Need evidence to support something that is unnatural in order to fully believe: overtoun bridge, claim: there is a bridge in scotland where dogs have been known to commit suicide off of. Some dogs, which have failed at committing suicide have even returned for a repeat attempt. Falsifiability: the concept that if a statement were in fact wrong, there would be a way to demonstrate its incorrectness . The hypothetico-deductive model: the main framework for inquiry within the scientific method, steps: A simple statement of belief about the world which has not yet been proven or disproven (aka: conjecture)