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THE HOOPS YOU MUST JUMP THROUGH

THE HOOPS YOU MUST JUMP THROUGH. A VERY SHORT JUSTIFICATION OF EMPIRICAL PROTOCOLS. (taken from Myers, Psychology (2004): 4). The experimental method is the truth-test of empiricism: The experiment designs a reality in which processes and/or behaviors can be observed, controlled, and measured;

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THE HOOPS YOU MUST JUMP THROUGH

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  1. THE HOOPS YOU MUST JUMP THROUGH A VERY SHORT JUSTIFICATION OF EMPIRICAL PROTOCOLS

  2. (taken from Myers, Psychology (2004): 4)

  3. The experimental method is the truth-test of empiricism: • The experiment designs a reality in which processes and/or behaviors can be observed, controlled, and measured; • The protocols of an experiment (the hoops!) guarantee that the data obtained are capable of establishing a cause-effect relationship; i.e. if IV A is manipulated, the effect(s) of that manipulation can be measured in the changes in DV B Why experiments?

  4. The Importance of Control • So that we can be sure that A B we must control other possible effects of other variables. If the setting of the experiment changes (different lighting, different temperature, different instructions), these changes may influence the changes in our DV. Hence, the absolute necessity of controlled variables. What Control Means

  5. We cannot control everything, nor do we want to. If total control were possible, the relationship established by the experiment would hold in only one case – that in which all variables were set at exactly the same levels. • In that case, no generalizations could be justified. • (see David W. Martin, Doing Psychology Experiments (1991):7) The Limits of Control

  6. Why Bother?

  7. Like all claims to true knowledge, empiricism rests on foundation assumptions that themselves cannot be tested • What are those assumptions that lie behind the experimental method? If we reject those assumptions, must we reject the truth claims of experimental science? The TOK Connection

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