Task 9 - Psychology A Science?

Question 1

Reasons why psychology is claimed to be a science

Answer 1

• psychology has a long, respectful past and uses the scientific method
• > science is defined by its method rather than by its subject matter
• scientific method has not let psychologists down
• relationships to other sciences

Question 2

Reasons why psychologists keep on using the scientific method

Answer 2

• systematicity and cumulativeness of knowledge
• use of well-defined methods
• clarity
• prediction
• knowledge is revisable
• comparison with pseudoscience
• acceptable progress so far

Question 3

Reasons why psychology is not seen as a science

Answer 3

-little overlap between stereotypical view of a scientist and the stereotypical view of a psychologist

Question 4

The hermeneutic alternative

Answer 4

• the task of the psychologist is to interpret and understand person on basis of their personal and socio-cultural history
• understanding a person involves not so much knowing how the person functions but what the person thinks, believes, feels, wants

-> they think that experimental approach overlooked essential skills practitioners need for their profession

Question 5

Wilhelm Dilthey

Answer 5

• German historian and philosopher
• one of the first to criticize psychology’s turn to natural sciences
• thought that psychology is a Geisteswissenschaft and not a Naturwissenschaft

Question 6

4 elements of Dilthey’s approach

Answer 6

1) psychology should be content-based
2) subject matter -> human experience in its totality
3) a persons life was embedded in a context
4) appropriate method for psychology: understanding

Question 7

Dilthey - 3 Levels of understanding

Answer 7

1) elementary forms: solve simple problems of life
2) empathy: re-experiencing someone else’s experience
3) hermeneutic: observed person can be better understood than oneself

Question 8

Critique of scientific psychology

Answer 8

• neglect of individual differences
• research method governs research question
• psychology has been confined too long to white western males
• scientific claims of objectivity and universal validity are exaggerated

Question 9

Humanistic psychology

Answer 9

• Rogers & Maslow: founders
• > reaction against Psychoanalysis and behaviorism
• stresses that people are human, inherently positive, endowed with free will and living within a socio-cultural context

Question 10

Maslow

Answer 10

• founder humanistic psychology

- > stressed need for a new type of science, which was not exclusively based on Descartes mechanistic view

Question 11

Rogers

Answer 11

• promoted therapy:
• client centered approach
• therapist should try to understand client, but without interpretation
• emphasized empathic form of understanding
• > sharing clients experiences
• combined hermeneutic with natural science approach

Question 12

Logical positivism

Answer 12

• movement in first half of 20th century
• philosophy should focus on verification instead of metaphysics

-Movement found prominence with publication of 1929 manifesto of Vienna circle

Question 13

Conclusions of Vienna circle (4)

Answer 13

1) truth is divided into two types: empirical truths and logical truths
2) empirical truths make claims about world and are established through empirical verification (observation + experiment)
3) logical truths are based on deductive logic and are influenced by linguistic conventions
4) statements not belonging to one of the categories above are meaningless

Question 13

Science proceeded a cycle (logical positivism)

Answer 13

-observation -> induction -> verification

Question 14

verificationism

Answer 14

• a proposition is meaningful, only if it can be verified as true or false
• proposition is scientific only if it can be verified through objective, value-free observation

Question 15

problems with verification criterion (5)

Answer 15

1) verification does not solve induction problem -> according tp rules of logic, inductive reasoning does not lead to conclusions guaranteed to be true
2) scientific theories are full of variables that cannot be observed directly
3) there are no criteria that unambiguously define ‘observable’
4) sometimes things are not observable until we know how to search for them
5) verifiable observations do not guarantee correct understanding

Question 17

Popper - falsification instead of verification

Answer 17

-falsification important for science
-understanding that the human observation is not theory-independent made deep impression on Popper
-

Question 18

What distinguishes science and non-science?

Answer 18

-science is falsifiable

Question 19

Falsificationism

Answer 19

• view within philosophy of science
• statements are only scientific if they can be falsified empirically
• it is impossible to prove truth of inductive conclusion, but it is possible to prove falseness of it -> counterexample is needed
• falsifiable if it rules out range of outcomes

Question 20

hypothetical-deductive method - Popper

Answer 20

• on basis of observation, induction and educate guessing -> theory pf phenomenon is formulated
• correctness of theory is evaluated by formulation of testable prediction (=hypothesis) on basis of deductive reasoning
• precision is then put to falsification test -> provides new observational data for further theorizing

-observation -> inductive reasoning -> interpretation -> deductive reasoning -> hypothesis -> test

Question 21

Implications of Poppers proposals

Answer 21

• popper was the first philosopher to accept scientific explanations could be wrong even if they seemed in line with collected evidence
• science is best seen as process of trial and error
• falsification goes against human intuition (confirmation bias)

Question 22

Problems with Popper’s approach

Answer 22

1) replacing falsified theories by alternatives as soon as they are contradicted by empirical observations -> does not agree with scientific practice and would seem too radical
2) researcher try to modify existing theory so that it can account for contradictory finding (ad hoc modification)
3) according to Popper, modifications are acceptable as long as they do not make theory less falsifiable
4) problem: researchers often propose modification they do not test and that are not taken up by other researchers

Question 23

Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996)

Answer 23

• agreed with Popper about priority of theory over observation
• structure of scientific revolutions -> no linear but like a cycle
• major shifts in scientific understanding
• > pre science -> normal science -> crisis -> revolution -> new normal science -> new crises
• > never ending cycle

->

Question 24

Pre science

Answer 24

• researchers have collection of facts, observations and models to explain these facts
• not yet a general theory integrating different findings within overall framework
• no agreement yet bout precise research methods to be used

Question 25

Normal science

Answer 25

• researchers start using common theoretical framework to investigate different facts (=paradigm)
• this paradigm determines which facts should be examined, how this should be done and what types of explanations are allowed
• modification of theory in light of contradictory findings must stay within paradigm
• > otherwise finding is an unexplained anomaly
• > anomalies trigger crisis

Question 26

Crisis

Answer 26

……

Question 27

Revolution

Answer 27

• because of scientific revolutions, scientific progress is not steady and cumulative
• during revolution, progress is very fast and at end of period of normal science