PSYA01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Heredity, Materialism, Humanistic Psychology
Document Summary
Psychology = as the scientific study of behaviours, thought, and experience, and how they can be affected be physical, mental, social, and environmental factors. Scientific method = is a way of learning about the world through, collecting observations, developing theories to explain them, and using theories to make predictions (through the construction of theories and hypothesis testing) Hypothesis = is a testable prediction about processes that can be observed and measured (must be testable) Pseudoscience = an idea that is presented as science but does not actually utilize basic principles of scientific thinking or procedure. Theory = is an explanation for a broad range of observations that also generates new hypotheses and integrates numerous findings into a coherent whole (general principles, theories are built from hypotheses) Theories are not the same thing as opinions or beliefs. All theories are not equally plausible (there are good theories and bad theories)
