Chapter 1 Science

Modified: 2006-01-20

• SCIENCE TODAY

Table 1.1

Physical Science	Biological Sciences	Social Sciences	Computational
Astronomy	Agriculture	Anthropology	Information, Computer, & Communication
Atmospheric	Biology	Linguistics/Language	Mathematics
Chemistry	Medical	Psychology	Statistics
Geology	Neuroscience	Economics
Geography	Pharmacological	Geography
Physics		Political

Scientific Disciplines (Derived from American Association for the Advancement of Science Membership Categories)

• CHARACTERISTICS OF SCIENCE
  • Empiricism
  • Public
  • Replication
  • Theory
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF SCIENCE
  • Myth and Magic
  • The Road to Modern Science
  • Aristotle
  • The Middle Ages
  • Science Emerges
  • Galileo and the Church
  • Darwin and Evolution
  • Einstein and Relativity
  • Psychology
    • Ernst Weber (1795--1878)
    • Gustav Fechner (1801--1887)
    • Hermann Helmholtz (1821--1894)
    • Physician Paul Broca (1824--1880)
    • Georges Romanes (1848--1894)
    • Edward Thorndike (1874--1949)
    • Wilhelm Wundt (1832--1920)

Table 1.2 APA List of Psychological Topics 1 Addictive Behavior 2. Aging 3 AIDS 4 Art/Music/Literature 5 Behavior Analysis 6 Behavioral Neuroscience 7 Child Abuse 8 Clinical/Counseling/Consulting 8.1 adolescent 8.2 assessment/diagnosis 8.3 child clinical/pediatric 8.4 geriatric 8.5 interaction/communications 8.6 process/outcome 8.7 professional 8.8 psychopathology 8.8.1. organic 8.8.2 personality/behavior disorders 8.8.3 schizophrenia 8.9 psychotherapy/treatment&emdash;methods 8.9.1 behavioral/cognitive 8.9.2 dynamic/psychoanalytic 8.9.3 existential 8.9.4 humanistic 8.10 psychotherapy/treatment&emdash;population 8.10.1 group 8.10.2 individual 8.10.3 marital/family 8.11 training 8.12 vocational/career 9 Cognition 9.1 attention/perception 9.2 memory 9.3 modeling 9.4 problem solving/reasoning/ comprehension 10 Community 10.1 service delivery 10.2 rural/urban 11 Comparative 12 Computer Applications 13 Creativity 14 Crime/Delinquency 15 Cross--Cultural 16 Death Studies 16.1 death and dying 16.2 bereavement 17 Depression/Suicide 18 Developmental 18.1 gender roles 18.2 stages 18.2.1 infant 18.2.2 child 18.2.3 adolescent 18.2.4 adult 18.3 family 18.4 cognitive 19 Disabilities 19.1 physical 19.2 emotional 19.3 cognitive/learning 20 Disasters/Crisis 21 Education 21.1 teaching 21.2 learning 21.3 professional training 22 Emotion 23 Environment 24 Ethics 25 Ethnic Minority Studies 25.1 African Americans 25.2 Asian/Pacific Islanders 25.3 American Indian/Alaska Natives 25.4 Hispanic Americans 26 Ethnic Studies 26.1 Cross--Cultural 27 Exercise Behavior 28 Experimental (General) 29 Family 30 Gay and Lesbian Issues 30.1 bisexual 30.2 transgender 31 Health Psychology/Behavioral Medicine 31.1 etiology 31.2 diagnosis 31.3 treatment 31.4 health promotion/prevention 31.5 health service systems 32 History 33 Human Factors Studies 34 Hypnosis 35 Industrial/Organizational 35.1 management/administration 35.2 consumer studies 35.3 personnel 36 Information Processing 37 Injury Prevention 37.1 intentional injuries 37.2 unintentional injuries 38 International 39 Law 39.1 clinical/forensic 40 Learning 40.1 animal 40.2 human 41 Measurement/Statistics/Methodology/ Computer 41.1 program evaluation 41.2 test construction 42 Media/Public Information 43 Men's Studies 44 Mental Retardation 45 Military 46 Motivation 47 Neuropsychology 48 Peace 49 Personality 49.1 humanistic theory 49.2 psychoanalytic theory 49.3 personality measurement 50 Pharmacology 51 Philosophy 52 Political 53 Population 54 Prevention 55 Psycholinguistics 56 Psychology Policy Issues 56.1 ethics 56.2 professional issues 56.3 public policy 56.4 scientific issues 56.5 training and education 57 Psychophysiology 58 Rehabilitation 59 Religion 60 Rural 61 School 62 Sensation/Perception 63 Sexual Behavior/Functioning 64 Social 64.1 attitude/attitude change 64.2 attribution 64.3 conflict resolution 64.4 decision making 64.5 group processes 64.6 relationships 64.7 sex roles 64.8 social cognition 65 Sports 66 Stress 67 Substance Abuse 68 Teaching of Psychology 69 Violence/Aggression 69.1 assault 69.2 homicide 69.3 suicide 70 Women's Studies 71 Work/Employment/Careers 71.1 academic 71.2 business/government 71.3 practice/research

• SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
  • Relationship of Science and Technology
  • Technology and Psychology
• PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
  • Karl Popper
  • Thomas Kuhn
  • Paul Feyerabend
• THEORY IN SCIENCE
  • Ideal Theory

Stop & Think Psychological Theories and You Before you read below about social science theories, take this survey. It will reveal what you think psychological theory is (or what you think it should be). 1. It is only a matter of time and effort before psychology discovers laws like those in physical science theories. True or False If you answered True, see Section 1 in Table 1.3. If you answered False, go to question 2. 2. Psychological theories will always be narrowly defined, more restricted versions of physical science theories. True or False If you answered True, see Section 2 in Table 1.3. If you answered False, go to question 3. 3. Using simpler models of complex psychological processes is a good way to study psychology. True or False If you answered True, see Section 3 in Table 1.3. If you answered False, go to question 4. 4. Psychology is a kind of exclusive club that I want to join. Taking this course is one of the first steps toward membership. After I am initiated, I will understand things about psychology that non--members of the club do not. If you answered True, see Section 4 in Table 1.3. If you answered false, go to question 5. 5. The world is a bad place, but by becoming a psychologist I can help make it better. If you answered True, see Section 5 in Table 1.3. If you answered False to all five, our effort to classify you as a theorist has failed!

Table 1.3 Psychological theories and you&emdash;What your answers mean. 1. You are waiting for psychology to move from law--oriented to ideal theories. 2. You are a law--oriented theorist. 3. You are an idealizing theorist. 4. You are a constructivist. 5. You are a critical theorist.

• THEORY IN PSYCHOLOGY
  • Law--Oriented Theory
  • Idealizing Theory
  • Constructivist Theory
  • Critical Theory
• YOU AND PSYCHOLOGY

According to the Job Outlook Survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the following skills were deemed useful by employers. In parentheses we added ways your research methods course helps you develop the skills. Those skills not followed by parenthetical comments are job specific.

• Oral communication skills (presenting your research idea in several settings)
• Interpersonal skills (interacting with peers, instructors, research participants, and the public)
• Analytical skills (taking you idea and turning it into a research design and later analyzing the results)
• Teamwork skills (working with peers and your instructor)
• Flexibility (dealing with unexpected events in your research)
• Computer skills (word processing, graphing, and data analysis)
• Proficiency in field of study (research methods will help you understand the content of psychology better)
• Written communication skills (writing throughout the course)
• Leadership skills (having to develop your own research project and carry it out)
• Work experience
• Internship experience
• Co-op experience
• Knowledge of companies' products or services

The Skills and Knowledge That Employers Seek 

General skills: 

• * Action oriented, take initiative
• * Bright, energetic, learn quickly
• * Understand and know how to deal with people
• * Can work on several problems at once
• * Are good team workers
• * Are dependable and get things done
• * Can negotiate effectively 

Information gathering and reporting skills: 

• * Literature searches (paper and electronic)
• * Structuring conversations (e.g., interviews) to obtain information
• * Avoid bias and preconceptions in information searches
• * Designing instruments (e.g., surveys, questionnaires) to obtain information
• * Observational techniques for obtaining information
• * Preparing and delivering oral and written reports
• * Organizing programmatic investigations 

General analysis and synthesis skills: 

• * Reading critically (e.g., are the claims appropriate for the information provided?)
• * Synthesizing and summarizing information from multiple sources
• * Intrepret both qualitative and quantitative data
• * Dealing with inconsistent information
• * Extracting key pieces of information rapidly from extensive material
• * Imposing structure on ambiguous, messy data
• * Translate information into meaningful conclusions, recommendations, or plans of action
• * Structuring and evaluating arguments 

Project planning skills: 

• * Identifying the steps in a project from beginning to end
• * Identifying potential problems ahead of time
• * Identifying resources needed (e.g., material, people, time)
• * Can mobilize team members 

Problem definition: 

• * Identifying central issues and key questions
• * Experience in identifying the most important problem(s) to be addressed from ambiguously defined problem statements
• * Can both solve general problems and focus on details
• * Understanding that there may be more than one route to problem solving
• * Understanding that there might not be only one right answer 

Understanding that people may have different perspectives: 

• * Understanding that people trained in different disciplines may look very differently at the same problem
• * Understanding that there is an advantage to understanding the different perspectives
• * Having the ability to take the different perspective (e.g., of clients)
• * Ability to coordinate or facilitate action among individuals with diverse perspectives

Methodological skills: 

• * Ability to detect confounded variables and design settings for appropriate comparisons and conclusions
• * Ability to conceptualize in terms of cause and effect
• * Experimental and quasi-experimental design skills 

Statistical and inferential skills: 

• * Statistical reasoning skills (e.g., law of large numbers, regression principle)
• * Statistical analysis skills
• * Ability to draw appropriate inferences from numerical data
• * Computer literacy/familiarity with appropriate software
• * Ability to present data to nontechnical audience 

Knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of people: 

• * Cognitive
• * Perceptual
• * Physical
• * Motivational
• * Social
• * Development
• * Personality

Field of Employment 

• * Advertising
• * Aerospace
• * Architecture & Design
• * Banking/Finance
• * Business
• * Computer Hardware & Software
• * Consumer Products
• * Criminal Justice System
• * Education
• * Employment
• * Entertainment, the Arts
• * Environment
• * Government
• * Health
• * Human Resources, e.g., personnel
• * Human Services, e.g., social service
• * Industry
• * Insurance
• * Manufacturing
• * Military
• * Museums, Zoos
• * Startup Companies
• * Sports
• * Telecommunications
• * Transportation/Traffic

Type of Work Performed 

• * Administration
• * Advising
• * Analysis
• * Assessment
• * Business Process Engineering
• * Computer/Human Interface
• * Consulting
• * Counseling
• * Data Analysis
• * Design
• * Editing
• * Ergonomics
• * Experimental Design
• * Evaluating
• * Facilitation
• * Focus Groups
• * Forensics
• * Interviewing
• * Market Research
• * Motivation
• * Negotiation
• * Performance Evaluation
• * Polling
• * Public Policy
• * Recruiting
• * Rehabilitation
• * Research
• * Safety
• * Sensory Evaluation/Perception
• * Software Engineering
• * Statistics
• * Strategic Planning
• * Stress Evaluation
• * Teaching/Training
• * Time-Motion Study
• * Work Design
• * Writing

In The Know: The importance of replication is illustrated by the aftermath of a 1989 press conference announcement by two chemists, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann. They announced that they had discovered cold fusion, a source of energy similar to the sun's, but one that occurs at room temperature. Their key finding was the unexpected and excess energy that they measured in a laboratory experiment. Other chemists attempted to measure those energies, but could not replicate the results. Eventually, the initial surge of enthusiasm about cold fusion and its implications waned, especially after a group of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a scathing review of methodological flaws. A few scientists are still pursuing cold fusion, but most scientists do not consider it a part of the facts about chemistry because it was not reproducible. See Voss (1999) for details about the cold--fusion controversy.

In the Know: The course of study at medieval universities was much different from today's curriculum. The trivium, or introductory curriculum, consisted of three courses: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The quadrivium, or advanced curriculum, consisted of geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and music. Books were produced by hand and were rare. Relatively few men (and hardly any women) attended the universities, and those students came from the clergy (or aspirants to the clergy) and the nobility.

GLOSSARY

 

Constructivism	rejects ideal theory; proposes that science is just one of many approaches to knowledge.
Critical theory	rejects ideal theory; uses ethical principles as its main theoretical guide.
Empiricism	the philosophical and scientific approach to knowledge that uses unbiased observation to discover truths about the world.
Falsifiable	Karl Popper's method for deciding the worth of a scientific theory. Falsifiable theories allow their predictions to be tested.
Geocentric model	Model of the solar system in which the earth was in the center orbited by the sun, moon, the five planets, and surrounded by the stars.
Heliocentric model	Model of the solar system in which the sun is the center and the planets orbit the sun.
Ideal theory	traditional theory in physical science, creates generalizable models and laws from observations of the universe.
Idealizing theory	modification of of ideal theory that creates models based on a few, core variables.
Law--oriented theory	modification of ideal theory that limits the universality of its theoretical constructs.
Natural selection	survival and reproduction of living things best suited to particular environments.
Paradigm	a global viewpoint that determines which scientific questions asked and the methods used to answer them.
Publish	The record of scientific results, methods, and theories, that serves as the permanent knowledge base of science.
Replication	The repetition of a scientific procedure in order to confirm the original results.
Reproducibility	A defining characteristic of science. Observation conducted under the same conditions should yield the same results.
Science	A method of inquiry that uses unbiased empirical observation, public methods, reproducible results, and theory to reveal universal truths about the universe.
Theory	The cognitive frameworks by which scientists understand the phenomena they study and guide them toward future research.

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