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human behavior and mental processes, including biorhythms, astrology, graphology (handwriting analysis), and magnet therapy for pain control. It is important for students of psychology to distinguish their own field clearly from this “pseudopsychology.” The Skeptic’s Dictionary An excellent source for information on pseudoscience is The Skeptic’s Dictionary(http://www.skepdic.com). Among the pseudoscientific beliefs and practices you can learn about are the following: • Cryptozoology.The study of “hidden” creatures like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, and the chupacabra. • Pseudoscientificpsychotherapies.Past-life regression, rebirthing therapy, and bioscream therapy, among others. • Homeopathy.The treatment of medical conditions using natural substances that have been diluted sometimes to the point of no longer being present. • Pyramidology.Odd theories about the origin and function of the Egyptian pyramids (e.g., that they were built by extraterrestrials) and the idea that pyramids in general have healing and other special powers. 4. Popper, K. R. (2002). Conjectures and refutations: The growth of scientific knowledge. New York, NY: Routledge. Chapter 1 5 KEY TAKEAWAYS • Science is a general way of understanding the natural world. Its three fundamental features are systematic empiricism, empirical questions, and public knowledge. • Psychology is a science because it takes the scientific approach to understanding human behavior. • Pseudoscience refers to beliefs and activities that are claimed to be scientific but lack one or more of the three features of science. It is important to distinguish the scientific approach to understanding human behavior from the many pseudoscientific approaches. EXERCISES 1. Discussion: People sometimes suggest that psychology cannot be a science because either (a) human behavior cannot be predicted with perfect accuracy or (b) much of its subject matter (e.g., thoughts and feelings) cannot be observed directly. Do you agree or disagree with each of these ideas? Why? 2. Practice: List three empirical questions about human behavior. List three nonempirical questions about human behavior. 3. Discussion: Consider the following psychological claim. “People’s choice of spouse is strongly influenced by their perception of their own parents. Some choose a spouse who is similar in some way to one of their parents. Others choose a spouse who is different from one of their parents.” Is this claim falsifiable? Why or why not? 1.2 Scientific Research in Psychology Available under Creative Commons-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. Describe a general model of scientific research in psychology and give specific examples that fit the model. 2. Explain who conducts scientific research in psychology and why they do it. 3. Distinguish between basic research and applied research. 6 1.2.1 A Model of Scientific Research in Psychology Available under Creative Commons-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). Figure 1.1 presents a more specific model of scientific research in psychology. The researcher (who more often than not is really a small group of researchers) formulates a research question, conducts a study designed to answer the question, analyzes the resulting data, draws conclusions about the answer to the question, and publishes the results so that they become part of the research literature. Because the research literature is one of the primary sources of new research questions, this process can be thought of as a cycle. New research leads to new questions, which lead to new research, and so on. Figure 1.1 also indicates that research questions can originate outside of this cycle either with informal observations or with practical problems that need to be solved. But even in these cases, the researcher would start by checking the research literature to see if the question had already been answered and to refine it based on what previous research had already found. Fig. 1.1: A Simple Model of Scientific Research in Psychology The research by Mehl and his
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