The Need For Psychological Science: The Limits of Intuition & Common Sense: Some people scorn a scientific approach because of their faith in human intuition. Intuition can lead you astray. We presume that we could have foreseen what we know happened. Finding out something has happened makes it seem inevitable. Psychologists call this 20/20 hindsight vision the hindsight bias (the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it) also know as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon. Our everyday thinking is not limited to out after-the-fact common sense, but also by our human tendency to be overly confident. The Scientific Attitude: Underlying all science is a hard-headed curiosity, a passion to explore …show more content…
Although limited by the testable questions it can address, a scientific approach helps us to sift reality from illusion, taking us beyond the limits of our intuition and common sense. The Scientific Attitude: Scientific inquiry begins with an attitude - a curious eagerness to skeptically scrutinize competing ideas and open-minded humility before nature. Putting ideas, even crazy-sounding ideas, to the test helps us winnow sense form non sense. The curiosity that drives us to test ideas and to expose their underlying assumptions carries into everyday life as critical thinking. The Scientific Method: Research stimulates the construction of theories, which organize observations and imply predictive hypotheses. These hypotheses (predictions) are then tested to validate and refine the theory and to suggest practical applications. *Check Yourself: What is the scientific attitude and why is it important for critical thinking? *Ask Yourself: How might the scientific method help us understand the roots of terrorism? Description: The Case Study: Among the oldest research methods is the case study (an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.). Most of our early knowledge about the brain came from case studies of individuals who suffered a particular impairment after damage to a certain brain region. Although case studies can also suggest hypotheses
The development of the scientific method in the late 1500’s to the early 1600’s was a crucial stepping-stone in the science community. The scientific method is based upon observations, hypotheses and experimentation. The concept is rather simple, and can be applied to many areas of study. Once an observation is made, the observer can make a hypothesis as to why that phenomenon occurs and can then design an experiment to prove whether or not that hypotheses is valid. Although the scientific method has been extremely useful in the discovery of various things from usages of medications to studying animal behavior, there are still those who question the usage of this tool. These critics claim that since
If I am to develop my personal critical thinking ability, I must first make a conscious choice to understand the basic concept of a premise and then make critical reflection of this basic concept by expanding my thinking approach. To achieve this, I must ask radical questions that will enhance the scope of analysis and judgment. I must move from the region of subconscious thinking to one of conscious thinking because in so doing, I become aware that I am actually thinking. This awareness will allow me to think beyond rudimentary concepts through critical reasoning and critical reflection to decipher underlying issues that are concealed in the concept under investigation. By understanding the predictable
Forming an explanation or point of view based on the available evidence is a scientific
Part of being a scientist consists of the desire to uncover these answers and sort out the questions. It requires a specific worldview that relies almost wholly on the senses and repetition for truth and certainty.
Throughout this course I have learned many things about research at an introductory level. Research is a critical part of all of our lives in many ways. God blesses each of us with a degree of common sense and we all learn from observing others even as babies, we learned behaviors and skills by observing our parents. Walking through experiences throughout life teach us a lot we need to know as well but sometimes we have to take a better approach when we need to learn about certain things. Many of us know that what works in some situations or with certain individuals doesn’t always work or is the safest option for another situation. Controlled and precisely organized study allows scientists to compare and examine contrasting methods and concepts, also helps them to discover various approaches and be able to learn from individual’s behaviors and experiences. I will act as the case study throughout this paper in order to observe what I have learned about.
He asserts that the scientific method of thinking is both disciplined and imaginative, and it helps people understand how the earth is, instead of how they want to view it. Sagan states that science operates much better compared to all other systems since it has a "built-in-error-correcting machine. " Pseudoscience and superstition get in the way of most of the general public's capacity to appreciate the benefits and beauty of science. Skeptical thinking enables persons to construct, understand, reason and acknowledge invalid and valid
Science is the knowledge gained by a systematic study, knowledge which then becomes facts or principles. In the systematic study; the first step is observation, the second step hypothesis, the third step experimentation to test the hypothesis, and lastly the conclusion whether or not the hypothesis holds true. These steps have been ingrained into every student of science, as the basic pathway to scientific discovery. This pathway holds not decision as to good or evil intention of the experiment. Though, there are always repercussions of scientific experiments. They range from the most simplistic realizations of the difference between acid and water to the principle that Earth is not the center of
As we talk about scientific thinking in class, we come upon the term of critical thinking to describe scientific thinking. When evaluating any sort of scientific claims, we must make sure that we are able to justify them and ignore any evidence that can blind from the truth. When we think scientifically, we must look at all the possibilities which are crucial to help us think critically. There are some explanations that need more evidence than what we really see because sometimes we do not see all the truth behind the reasoning, which include the six principles. Those six principles are ruling out rival hypothesis, correlation vs. causation, falsifiability, replicability, extraordinary claims and last
The process of critical thinking requires you to ask more questions of both others and of yourself before a decision or determination is made. In order to successfully evaluate data in a critical manner, you must have a system in place to assess information as it is presented. In any situation whether you are having a conversation, observing others, or material you have read, you must be ready to probe deeper and ask the right question at the right time.
Within the concept of skeptics and critical thinkers, I will explore the Areas of Knowledge, the natural sciences and human sciences, within which I will further scrutinize the sciences Chemistry and Psychology. Chemistry focuses more on the composition of properties and change of states in matter. On the other hand, Psychology focuses on reasons for the mentality of human beings based on hypothesis, replicating experiments, and challenging existing beliefs, thus trying to avoid emotional reasoning.
After having a close view of core science and development of scientific temperament and to
As people, we come with earlier knowledge and understandings on subjects and topics of study, “Science” being one of them. We make presumptions, based on either reasonable evidence or that our thoughts and ideas are known as true by others. Through this we have come to understand and define science as its aims, leaving its definition, whether consciously or unconsciously, unchallenged. We have taken advantage of the label that we have set for science, as well as its goals, and failed to look at them further.
What is Science? When it comes to the word ‘science’ most of the people have some kind of knowledge about science or when they think of it there is some kind of image related to it, a theory, scientific words or scientific research (Beyond Conservation, n.d.). Many different sorts of ideas float into an individual’s mind. Every individual has a different perception about science and how he/she perceives it. It illustrates that each person can identify science in some form. It indicates that the ‘science’ plays a vital role in our everyday lives (Lederman & Tobin, 2002). It seems that everyone can identify science but cannot differentiate it correctly from pseudo-science and non-science (Park, 1986). This essay will address the difference between science, non-science and pseudo-science. Then it will discuss possible responses to the question that what should we do when there is a clash between scientific explanation and non-scientific explanation. Then it will present a brief examination about the correct non-scientific explanation.
The nature and process of science are a collection of things, ideas, and guidelines. “The purpose of science is to learn about and understand our universe more completely” (Science works in specific ways, 3). Science works with evidence from our world. If it doesn’t come from the natural world, it isn’t science. You need to be creative and have flexible thoughts and ideas if you want to be a scientist. Science always brings up new ideas and theories and if you aren’t flexible to those ideas you can’t be a scientist. Science has been in our world for a long time. It is deep into our history and our cultures. The principals of science; are all about understanding our world using the evidence we collect. If we can’t collect evidence on something we simply cannot understand it. If we don’t understanding something about our world, science says that we can learn about it by collecting evidence (Science has principals, 4). Science is a process; it takes time. You don’t immediately come to a conclusion for your hypothesis a few minutes
It is human nature to question our reality in an attempt to better understand our surroundings. Science, for me, is the devotion to better understand the world we live in, rooted in the natural and inevitable questions that all humans ask themselves. I believe that by answering the most fundamental questions, the potential technological advancements are much greater than that generated by applied engineering. Nowadays we can thank Einstein 's theory of relativity for