science goal

• Scientific practices seek to understand structure (_what_) and function (_why_)

• –Isolate and manipulate variables: constant except for one thing
• –Systematic process (scientific method)
• –Reliable measurement system: consistent across measurements
• –Replication! Replication!: test over and over
• –Logical
• –_falsifiable _

• Pseudoscience goal:

• Pseudoscientific practices seek to understand structure (_what__) and function (__why___)...

...in order to cure the sick, predict the future, make money, etc.

Pseudoscience measurements

• Does not adhere to __the scientific method___
• Lacks _evidence__
• Unfalsifiable: existence of santa
• Over-reliance on confirmation
• Un__reliable_____ (not _replicable___ by other people, in other settings, with other equipment, etc.)

Some aspects of human behavior cannot be studied from a natural science approach

hypothetico-deductive

Create a hypothesis about human nature and search for confirmations/disconfirmations of that hypothesis.

Search for regularities in the natural world using objective observation

• Inductive: Identify patterns in behavior and derive a hypothesis from careful testing of functional relations (_Cause-effect _)

Assumptions of natural science

• ____Realism______: Object and events exist outside of our perception of them
• ____Determinism______: Events have a preceding cause
• ____Regularity_______: Phenomena exist in recurring patterns that conform with universal laws

Empirical

experience or observation as opposed to logic, _authority__, or intuition

Objective

• Focus on events that can be observed by at least ____2 people_____

Tentative

No theory claims to have the whole ___truth_____

Self-correcting

Beliefs and opinions can be changed based upon ____new data____

Parsimonious

A theory will not be adopted until all ___simpler___ explanations have been ruled out

Progressive

Cumulative increase in the quantity/ quality of knowledge