Science (human science&natural science)

Notes de l'éditeur

1. Problem of human science : - observe people’s behavior - cannot observe minds directly Educated guess about thinking -never completely sure it is right. Want others to have good image of them -change behavior a little Psychology evidence : - people overestimate own strengths -underestimate own weakness.
2. People are reasonably honest: can learn a lot from questionnaires, opinion polls and interview to know people’s thinking. - usually say will do one thing but do another -question can point to answer (loaded question) -people change behavior when watched -embarrassed (observer effect) - putting label can change behavior (expectation)
3. Difficult to measure anything precisely in human science T ry to count your thoughts, process of counting interferes what trying to count. American psychologist William James : thinking not single thoughts but a continuous stream of consciousness .
4. Some twentieth-century psychologists: -unscientific--neither objectively observed nor precisely measured. Experiments not accurate: -impossible to run controlled experiments -experiments may change behavior of participants -ethical reasons: experiments negative effect on participants