2011 - 2012 Terminology 2

1 Creationism versus Evolution
Creationists base their views on religious beliefs while those who believe in evolution base their beliefs on scientific evidence. Karl Popper thinks that evolution is science because theory comes first instead of observation.

2 Thomas Kuhn
The philosopher of science who introduced the term "paradigm shift" in science.

3 Reductionist Thinking
A form of explanation of science based on the idea that a complex system can be reduced to its simpler parts. This is a common way to try to explain things.

4 Coherence Theory
Something that is true when it fits with other theories. Scientific theory is true when it describes reality accurately.

5 Law of Large Numbers
If we get enough people, even though individuals are unpredictable, we can make accurate short term trends because the number of exceptions can be cancelled.

6 Three Parts of Personality
The three parts of personality are our id, superego, and ego. The id is our natural pleasure zone, the superego is our conscience in which we act to conform with society's rules, while the ego is what we show to other people.

7 The Rorschach Test
A ink block test conducted by psychologists to help diagnose their patients' sickness. This test is said to be not very reliable and valid after the scientific method is used to test it.

8 The Milgram Experiment
An experiment conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram to find out whether people will obey to authority figures to do actions that go against their conscience. The results show that people follow orders even though it conflicted with their moral beliefs.

9 The Stanford Prison Experiment
An experiment conducted by Professor Philip Zimbardo in August 1971 in order to find out whether good people will turn bad when put into an evil situation. The experiment was originally planned to take place for two weeks, but was stopped after 6 days because of ethical issues.

10 Observer Effect
People answer or act different than they naturally would because a person is watching or will read their answers. Social scientists want to minimize this effect in experiments.

11 Holism
The whole of a system is not equal to the sum of its parts.

12 Reductionism
We can understand and explain something by looking at its component parts (opposite of holism).