Characteristics of Scientific Theory

Behaviorism

Appendix: Characteristics of Science

The criticisms that have been made of psychoanalysis have focused on the fundamental idea that psychoanalysis is not adapted to the requirements for a theory to be characterized as scientific. We shall therefore look very briefly at these requirements before continuing with the various trends in psychology.

Aside from the problem that creates the division between empirical and experimental sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) and human or social sciences, there are a number of basic issues that science must share:

1. They deal with phenomena occurring in the physical world.
2. They begin with some common assumptions:
   • Determinism: It is assumed that the world, particularly the object of study of each discipline, is subject to an order and that natural phenomena are interrelated in a certain and stable way.
   • Finite Scope: Not everything is connected to everything. It is assumed that there is a limited number of relevant factors or variables that permit the application of the scientific method.
3. They have general objectives:
   • Objective: Description: This is a preliminary step to investigation and involves observing the phenomenon to be studied and providing an appropriate description of it.
   • Objective: Explanation: What is sought is to establish functional relationships that exist between phenomena and state laws. A scientific law is a proposition which describes the existence of a functional relationship between observational facts.
4. They use the same method to achieve the proposed objectives.

The ultimate goal of the scientific method is empirical evidence that is verifiable (or falsifiable; this is not the appropriate place for this debate). An important feature of the phenomenon you want to study is that it must be reproducible. That is, if the experiment is replicated (repeated in the same way), the data obtained in the measurements should be identical. For this to happen, two aspects must be taken into account:

1. The observation or data collection. In this process, it is necessary to solve problems of definition, measurement, and registration.
2. The establishment of empirical evidence, which involves solving control problems. To solve these problems, it is essential to give an operational definition of the phenomenon being studied. An operational definition is one that tells us how to make any researcher able to observe the phenomenon defined.

The use of operational definitions facilitates:

• Measurement: Consists of assigning numbers to objects or events according to certain rules.
• Using equipment and techniques: This aims for three objectives:
  1. Expanding the field of observation beyond what our senses allow.
  2. Improving the accuracy of the observations to be made.
  3. Allowing repeated observations.