PSY309H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Pseudoscience, Falsifiability, Empiricism
Document Summary
The limitations of intuition and authority: problem with intuition is that many biases affect our perceptions. Authority: rejects the notion that one can accept on faith the statements of authority. Prediction of behaviour: allows us to anticipate events and helps us to make better decisions. Determining the causes of behaviour: to know how to change behaviour, we need to know the causes of behaviour, to conclude causation, three things must occur: Temporal precedence when cause precedes the effect in a time sequence. Covariation of the cause and effect when cause is present, effect occurs; when cause is not present, effect doesn"t occur. Alternative explanations a potential alternative cause of an observed relationship b/w variables. Basic research: tries to answer fundamental questions about the nature of behaviour, designed to address theoretical issues concerned with natural phenomena. Applied research: conducted to address issues in which there are practical problems and potential solutions, a major area of applied research is program evaluation.
