1 / 25

Science and Society

Science and Society. Class 5. Human Limitations and the Need for Explanatory Systems. Duration of consciousness : 5 secs +/- 2. -4 -3 -2 -1 NOW +1 +2 +3 +4. Fovea -- tiny area responsible for focused vision.

gabby
Download Presentation

Science and Society

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Science and Society Class 5

  2. Human Limitations and the Need for Explanatory Systems Duration of consciousness: 5 secs +/- 2 -4 -3 -2 -1 NOW +1 +2 +3 +4 Fovea -- tiny area responsible for focused vision Biases and Errors: Egocentric biases, social biases, reasoning fallacies and limits. Fears and Drives: Mortality fears, need to belong, need to control, sexual, territorial, and acquisitive drives. Need for Meaning: Dissonance reduction, Zeigarnik effect.

  3. Limits and Needs Lead to Explanatory Systems

  4. Science: A Revolutionary Explanatory System Acknowledges biases: Science is objective, scientists are not. Methods and approach designed to overcome biases Democratic rather than authoritarian Evolutionary rather than canonical

  5. Incident of a Fingerpost – The “Charming” Chemist Murder investigation: is sludge at base of wine bottle poison? a. Compares sludge to known poison (arsenic) b. Conducts multiple tests (heat, weight, reaction to other substances, affects on organisms (cats)). c. Identical results -- sludge and arsenic behave the same d. a.___ The substance is arsenic b.___ The substance might be arsenic c.___ The substance is not arsenic X Chemist described as highly odious person: Filthy, smelly, rotted teeth, rude, self-important, arrogant, lewd. Why? Hint: Does chemist’s character affect his findings?

  6. Acts of Selfless (?) Heroism The “fifth man” in Air Florida crash Polish Concentration Camp Guard Question: What motivates this behavior?

  7. Why Do People Help Others? Altruistic explanation – Empathy + Opportunity  helping People help because they care. Egoistic explanations Negative state relief: Stop personal discomfort Avoid social/self punishments: Shame, guilt Seek social/self rewards: Honor, pride

  8. Batson Test of Empathy Theory Empathy: People will help others in need IF they feel empathy VERSUS Avoid social punishments: People help only to avoid social censure. People will help if they feel empathy, EVEN IF they can escape from helping Prediction

  9. Empathy vs. Social Censure Factorial Design Difficult Escape Easy Escape Low Empathy Helps Doesn’t Help High Empathy Helps ???

  10. “Social Censure” Predictions “Empathy and Altruism” Predictions Justification for not helping Justification for not helping Low Empathy Condition Low Empathy Condition High Empathy Condition High Empathy Condition Weak Justif. High Score High Score Strong Justif. Low Score Low Score Weak Justif. High Score High Score Strong Justif. Low Score High Score Performance on Test to Switch Places with Elayne

  11. Effort Made to Help "Elayne" as a Function of Felt Empathy and Opportunity for Face-Saving Out Batson et al., 1988 NOTE: Outcome is number of correct responses on qualifying test.

  12. The Attributes of Science Concerned with discovery, and new ways of seeing Explores questions empirically—strives for reliability Assumes objective reality Accurate measures Controlled designs Replicable Falsifiable Investigates relations between variables Is A related to B? Does A cause B? Is relation between A and B determined by C?

  13. Attributes of Science, continued Self-correcting Open to public scrutiny Subject to peer review Recursive (theory  hyps  observations  theory) Amoral Moves by small steps and by huge leaps (Kuhn : generative crises)

  14. Steps in Scientific Method • Identify Problem • Construct Problem Statement • Form Hypothesis • Deductive and Inductive Reasoning

  15. Steps in the Scientific Method 1. Identifying problems “There is a troubled, perplexed, trying situation, where the difficulty is, as it were, spread throughout the entire situation, infecting it as a whole”. EXAMPLE: Some people believe that the way to cope with bad events is to act in a positive manner, and your feelings will follow. Others say you should express your negative feelings in order to get over them. Problem: How can both explanations be true? Problem identification is therefore an emotional event.

  16. Schema Violation, Emotions, and Discovery A fizzy soft drink, rival of Pepsi Coke A short funny story with a punch line. Joke Blue/gray vapors emitted by fire Smoke Mighty tree that shed acorns Oak The white part of an egg Albumin

  17. 2. Articulate problem “Without some statement of the problem, the scientist can rarely go further and expect the work to be fruitful” EXAMPLE: “Does expression of emotions promote coping?” • Hypothesis formation Hypothesis: A formal statement of conjecture, that can be stated in “ifthen” terms, or A  B terms. A (people who are emotionally stressed) B (will cope better if they express their disturbing thoughts and feelings).

  18. 4. Reasoning and Deduction: If general hypothesis is true, then specific instances must also be true. Deducing specific from general allows for experiment design. GENERAL HYPOTHESIS: Expression of distress promotes coping. SPECIFIC INSTANCE: College freshmen will get sick less often if they express their thoughts and feelings about starting college. 5. Observation andInduction: If something is true in a specific instance, it may also be true in general. EXAMPLE: When I talk about my problems, I feel better. Maybe this is true for everybody.

  19. What’s The Rule? 3, 5, 7 13, 15, 17 Rule: 3 increasing whole numbers What’s my point? Induction is seductive—becareful of self-confirming patterns. How to avoid this pitfall? Ask yourself: What else might explain this outcome?

  20. Science and Facilitated Communication Facilitated Communication Studies Science Hypotheses arise form emotional problem, feeling of un-ease Problem statement Hypothesis statement, presented in falsifiable form Experiment framed. Prosecutor worried about veracity of FC. OD Heck want to show that FC works “… were these communications coming from the autistic children?” If FC real, then it should work when facilitator blind to what child sees. Facilitator and child see same vs diff. pix; how is accuracy affected?

  21. Science Facilitated Communication Conduct objective, varied, and replicable measures Double blind study; Pix naming, mesg. passing, eyes on keypad New hypothesis—FC a sham—makes other discrepancies evident Kids type w/o looking at keypad Why so many autistic so verbally skilled? New hypothesis has powerful social consequences Devastates believers; liberates kids; redeems “abusers” Serendipity (unexpected discovery) Uncons. drives overt behavior; D. Wegner Science and Facilitated Communication

  22. Framing of Facilitated Communication Experiments Kid Sees Facilitator Sees Cup Dog Cup I II Dog III IV 1. Which are the criterion cells? 2. If FC is valid, what should be facilitator's response in criterion cells?

  23. “Beautiful” Theory “Ugly” Fact Earth center of universe Copernicus, Galileo: Earth a satellite in far corner of cosmos Humans are a select creation Darwin: humans are an advanced primate Time and space are fixed, constant Einstein: Time and space are relative Sexualized thinking is deviant Freud: Sexualized thinking is normal Disease, illness a spiritual problem Pasteur: Disease, illness a microbial problem “A Beautiful Theory Destroyed by an Ugly Fact” Basic Assumptions Overturned by Science

More Related