Research Methods Personality Theory

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metaphysical explanations

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explanations that violate what scientists now consider to be established physical laws because they attribute behavior/experiences to non-physical forces

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animism

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the belief that natural phenomena are alive and influence behavior

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mythological and religious systems

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make the assumption that deities play an important role in human behavior, share assumption with animism that nonphysical forces determine a lot of human behavior

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astrology

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assumes that human behavior directed by celestial bodies, adopts some scientific practices in attempting to explain human behavior

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philosophy

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study of knowledge, behavior, and the nature of reality by making use of logic, intuition, and empirical observations

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positivism

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theory of August Comte that says that knowledge and human behavior should be based only on observations that can be made with absolute certainty

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empricism

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idea that the best way to learn about the world is to make observations

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physiology

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study of the functions and interrelations between different parts of the brain and body

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psychology

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scientific study of human behavior

Front 10

canons

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fundamental principles that are more or less accepted on faith

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determinism

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doctrine that the universe is orderly and that all events have meaningful, systematic causes

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base-rate information

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information about the proportion of things in a target population

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illusory correlation

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common judgemental bias where people infer correlation/connection between group membership and the likelihood of engaging in positive/negative behavior

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theory

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statement about the causal relation between two or more variables

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parsimony

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we should be extremely frugal in developing/choosing btw theories by steering away from unecessary concepts

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Occam's razor

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principle of parsimony that states that it is intellectually inappropriate to make more assumptions than you absolutely have to

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Lord Morgan's Canon

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idea that it is inappropriate to explain animal behs in terms of higher mental functioning when they can be explained by simple mental activities i.e. conditioned associations

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4 canons of psychology
(PSYCH DEPT)

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determinism, empiricism, parsimony, and testability

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testability

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assumption that scientific theories should be confirmable/disconfirmable via available research techniques

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falsifiability

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idea that scientists should go a step beyond putting their theories to some kind of test by actively seeking out test that could prove their theories wrong

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logical positivism

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belief that science and philosophy should be based soley on things that can be observed with absolute certainty

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operational definitions

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definitions of theoretical constructs that are stated in terms of concrete, observable procedures

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4 ways of knowing

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intuition, logic, authority, observation