Is Parapsychology a pseudo-science?

With a partner come up with your definition for what makes a subject a science. Consider the following subjects and categorise them with reason Physics Chemistry Sociology Philosophy Maths Theology Economics Biology

Social Science Natural Science Is the subject under investigation a construct of humans, or something independent of human activity? What differences arise from this distinction?

Rationalism Empiricism What can we trust when acquiring knowledge about the world? Rationalists argue for our powers of reason and deduction, empiricists for our senses.

Falsifiable

Science?

 Cant falsify the hypothesis Lacks controlled replicable research Theories are strongly held beliefs that often ignore evidence Burden of proof is put on the sceptics Which of these do you think Parapsychology might suffer from?

 Peer review
Look at Mousseau 03 and predict findings
Criteria Empirical data Used experimental method Falsified an idea Cited their own previous work Parapsychology Journals 43% 24% 19% 12% Mainstream Journals 54% 57% 0% 0%

Why might the mainstream journals have not had studies which falsified ideas?

 In what ways do you think that parapsychology will struggle to be a science? Read p.506 511 and answer summary questions 1 7.

 Replicability
Can you think of an AS study which is replicable? Can you think of an AS study which is not? What makes a study hard to replicate?

Therefore the keys to replication are:

Control of variables Consistent Method

 With a partner consider the following studies and come up with 3 factors which reduce their ability to replicate
Zimbardos experiment Freuds case study of Little Hans

Why is behavioural Psychology usually more replicable than Psychodynamic Psychology?

 What is replicable?
Studies on ESP (Ganzfeld Technique) controlled experiments.

What is not replicable?

Psychics claim that the presence of a sceptical scientist, and related negative energy, disrupts their ability to communicate with spirits.

 Popper Hypothetico-deductive method (must be possible to prove the theory is false) What would falsify the claim that our Short Term Memory stores an average of 7 items? Why cant we falsify all ravens are black? What problems do we have with evolutionary psychology and falsification? What problems do we have with Near Death Experiences and UFOs and falsification?

 Some areas are not falsifiable

UFOs Near Death Experiences

Some areas are falsifiable

Ganzfeld Technique

 What makes it hard for Psychology to be objective?

1. Directional (Poppers lecture of example where people were told to observeobserve what?) 2. Humans studying humans 3. Measuring something very vague (e.g. how much someone loves their mother) Can anyone think of a study that illustrates our lack of objectivity as psychologists?

 Fraud Sheep Goat Effect

http://www.badpsychics.co.uk/thefraudfiles/mo dules/news/article.php?storyid=181

(Sylvia Brown and the miners) Read through your books and answer the questions on Walter Levy and James Randi

 Consistent finding that sheep experimenters get more positive results than goats Wiseman and Schiltz Wiseman (goat) and Shiltz (Sheep) carried out an experiment together where they observed Ganzfeld subjects through a CCTV camera. Results showed that when Schiltz was watching not only did subjects do better but their Galvanic Skin Response went up... !! However this has not been replicated.

 Peer Review
Sent to a qualified adjudicator (editor) She sends it to fellow specialists to see if its publishable and whether any further work needs to be done

Problems with Peer review

Less likely to publish failed studies (Toms point) Can be elitist and biased

 Should be able to observe and test phenomena

 Can we use a scientific method to study the mind? What areas can we use it and what areas is it more tricky and why? Why do we have a problem with controls? How can we overcome this problem?

 Which of the following areas of anomalistic psychology do you think can be studied empirically? Mind Reading Near Death Experiences Psychic Healing Mediumship

 Kuhn suggests that there are 3 stages in the development of science

No generally accepted paradigm

A new model is introduced which causes a paradynamic shift (e.g. Earth moves around the sun)

Pre-science
All scientists are working from the same paradigm (e.g. Newton)

Normal Science

Revolutionary Science

What stage do you think psychology is at?

 Why does Kuhn think we are prescience?

Because we cant agree! (variety of psychological approaches)

 Humanists we should use a phenomenological approach (i.e. Self reporting) Social Constructionists human behaviour and certain phenomena arent durable and so we should use qualitative research methods such as discourse analysis (e.g. Used to be fine for me to beat you, now- not so much) Do we agree? Would it be more valid to accept that we cant be scientific and thus not try? Feminists have problems with historical psychological research, why?

Falsifiable

Science?