PSY300 ColoState Week 1 Scientific Approach To Knowledge Discussion
Humanities
You must choose ONE of the following FIVE questions/topics below to answer/address. Make sure you answer/address ALL parts of the question/topic.
1. What are the three fundamental features of the general scientific approach? Be sure to describe each feature and provide a specific example of each.
2. What is pseudoscience? What defines a belief or activity as pseudoscientific? Why should we be concerned about pseudoscience? Describe an example of a pseudoscientific activity or belief and explain why it is pseudoscientific.
3. Take a look at one of the attached articles and explain the pseudoscience being described/evaluated. Include the citation of the article (in APA style) at the top of your response. Respond to the following in your description:
a) What phenomena is described/being evaluated?
b) What is the pseudoscience being promoted (as described in the article)?
c) What is the scientific consensus on the phenomena, as described in the article?
4. People sometimes suggest that psychology cannot be a science because either a) human behavior cannot be predicted with perfect accuracy, or b) most of its subject matter (e.g., thoughts and feelings) cannot be observed directly. Explain why psychology is a science and why both assumptions are false. What is an “empirical question”? List two empirical and two nonempirical questions about human behavior.
5. What is basic research? What is applied research? Based on your own experience or on things you have already learned about psychology, list three basic research questions and three applied research questions. Be sure to identify specific variables in your examples.
Reminder: If you quote directly from the text in your answer please indicate so by using quotation marks. When using material from the text you must list page numbers. Remember, grammar counts: I expect you to communicate your ideas clearly and to appropriately cite material. DO NOT copy and paste from websites. Always include references with your responses, even if you are paraphrasing the material.
