PSYCH 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Steven Pinker, Scientific Method, Data Analysis
26 Aug 2016
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The necessity of methods: published articles about psychology can be a hit or miss. Always be skeptical about any scientific result. Be confident in the method (to empirically observe the world around us: the hardest science . History of psychology: philosophers (16th century) Got out of the armchair by using the scientific method. A method for arriving at knowledge about the natural world, describing it accurately, and explaining why things are the way that they are. Able to find the underlying laws that govern how the human mind works: scientific explanation. A satisfying explanation invokes principles that are fewer in number, more general, earlier in the causal chain, and closer to irreducible physical and mathematical law than the ones that immediately fit the data in question. The goal: to get down to a fundamental explanation. Believed that many psychologists aren"t pursuing the science: recipe for science (feynman) seriously enough. Take your best guess at an answer.
