However, psychology, even scientific psychology, presents falsifiability challenges not evident in the natural scientists. Some scientists might argue that Freud has been shown to be a poor theorist, given what has been revealed about the brain since Popper's day. If a depressive shows no improvement after years of Freudian therapy, but does show improvement after taking Prozac, that could be said to prove Freud wrong. Unfortunately, so many other external factors can affect a person's mood it is hard to attribute a single cause to a person's remission. It could be the drug or other conditions in the individual's environment. While large drug trials try to use large sample sizes as a way of reducing the influence of extraneous variables as well as use control groups who receive a placebo, the less observable and testable the phenomenon, the more difficult it is to measure. Even attempts to demonstrate improvement of children on an academic test after being prepared for the exam are contentious in terms of their ability to be externally validated. Tests of mood or psychological health are even more difficult to construct. Almost no conceivable ethical scientific test could confirm a broad-based psychological theory with the same level of falsifiability as a law of physics, given the levels of controls that would have to be imposed upon the human subjects.
Neuroscience is far easier to subject to the falsifiability test than psychological theories. For example, stroke victims with damage to critical brain areas have shown consistent cognitive deficits in certain behaviors pertaining to movement and behavior, demonstrating the link between body and mind, and how the physical body impacts consciousness and personality. The finding that the left hemisphere of the brain tends to control functions related to language, and the right spatial relationships has been verified by numerous scientific studies upon victims with impaired cognitive functions confined to one area. For example one study of individuals with brain damage, one group with exclusively left brain damage and the other with right brain damage were asked to copy the same complex figure. The results suggested that: "constructional function is not localized separately in each hemisphere in each individual, but is generally localized contralateral to the localization of language function (mostly the right hemisphere); and (2) language and constructional functions...
This is one example of a falsifiable -- indeed, a falsified -- psychological theory. Many aspects of Freudian psychology have raised serious objections since Freud first advanced them, and in this instance the observations did not fit the logic of his seduction theory, so the theory was abandoned. It was logically proven to be incorrect -- or falsified. McNally also points out that falsifiability should in now way be
Attribution Theory Covered in the Readings Human beings are naturally an inquisitive set of species; they are always wondering how and why things occur. For this reason, they create sciences, philosophies and religions as approaches of answering their questions. For decades, this curiosity has influenced their personal, interpersonal, cultural and societal lives in intricate ways. Much of this is observed in our daily lives through our conversations and mindset interactions
Karl Popper is arguably one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century because of his role as one of the pioneers of philosophy of science. Popper was a political and social philosopher of significant stature, a dedicated campaigner and strong defender of the Open Society, and a committed rival of all types of conventionalism, skepticism and relativism in human affairs and science (Thorton, n.d.). He considered one of the
"It is not just a Catholic and Protestant Debate"(13). Some Catholic statements, like the 1968 papal encyclical Humanae Vitae, condemn the practice on grounds of the created order, which is thought to be structured in such a way that all sexual expression must be open to procreation. Other statements, notably various declarations issued from 1969 to 1989 by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) in the U.S. appeal instead
The Role of Theory in Research: Defining and Understanding TheoriesThe purpose of this paper is to provide a discussion concerning the role of theory in research, including defining a theory and how they are used in psychology. Finally, the paper identifies three characteristics of a useful theory and examines how theories further science, followed by a brief summary in the conclusion.Review and DiscussionFrom a broad perspective, people have always used
Criminology is not an abstract discipline. It is designed to have real world, real-life implications and thus must be undertaken with care. However, human beings' behavior cannot be perfectly controlled, and no experiment conducted in the field can be isolated from variables that may potentially affect the results, even with the inclusion of a control group. A faulty experiment could have far-reaching effects. Beyond the ethics of studying crime, there
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