THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Transcription

1 THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD A Hypotheses, sad Medawar n 1964, are magnatve and nspratonal n character ; they are adventures of the mnd. He was argung n favour of the poston taken by Karl Popper n The Logc of Scentfc Dscovery (1972, rd edton) that the nature of scentfc method s hypothetco-deductve and not, as s generally beleved, nductve. B It s essental that you, as an ntendng researcher, understand the dfference between these two nterpretatons of the research process so that you do not become dscouraged or begn to suffer from a feelng of cheatng or not gong about t the rght way. C The myth of scentfc method s that t s nductve: that the formulaton of scentfc theory starts wth the basc, raw evdence of the senses - smple, unbased, unprejudced observaton. Out of these sensory data - commonly referred to as facts generalsatons wll form. The myth s that from a dsorderly array of factual nformaton an orderly, relevant theory wll somehow emerge. However, the startng pont of nducton s an mpossble one. D There s no such thng as an unbased observaton. Every act of observaton we make s a functon of what we have seen or otherwse experenced n the past. All scentfc work of an expermental or exploratory nature starts wth some expectaton about the outcome. Ths expectaton s a hypothess. Hypotheses provde the ntatve and ncentve for the nqury and nfluence the method. It s n the lght of an expectaton that some observatons are held to be relevant and some rrelevant, that one methodology s chosen and others dscarded, that some experments are conducted and others are not. Where s, your nave, pure and objectve researcher now? E Hypotheses arse by guesswork, or by nspraton, but havng been formulated they can and must be tested rgorously, usng the approprate methodology. If the predctons you make as a result of deducng certan consequences from your hypothess are not shown to be correct then you dscard or modfy your hypothess.if the predctons turn out to be correct then your hypothess has been supported and may be retaned untl such tme as some further test shows t not to be correct. Once you have arrved at your hypothess, whch s a product of your magnaton, you then proceed to a strctly logcal and rgorous process, based upon

2 deductve argument hence the term hypothetco-deductve. F So don t worry f you have some dea of what your results wll tell you before you even begn to collect data; there are no scentsts n exstence who really wat untl they have all the evdence n front of them before they try to work out what t mght possbly mean. The closest we ever get to ths stuaton s when somethng happens by accdent; but even then the researcher has to formulate a hypothess to be tested before beng sure that, for example, a mould mght prove to be a successful antdote to bacteral nfecton. G The myth of scentfc method s not only that t s nductve (whch we have seen s ncorrect) but also that the hypothetco-deductve method proceeds n a step-by-step, nevtable fashon. The hypothetco-deductve method descrbes the logcal approach to much research work, but t does not descrbe the psychologcal behavour that brngs t about. Ths s much more holstc nvolvng guesses, reworkngs, correctons, blnd alleys and above all nspraton, n the deductve as well as the hypothetc component -than s mmedately apparent from readng the fnal thess or publshed papers. These have been, qute properly, organsed nto a more seral, logcal order so that the worth of the output may be evaluated ndependently of the behavoural processes by whch t was obtaned. It s the dfference, for example between the academc papers wth whch Crck and Watson demonstrated the structure of the DNA molecule and the fascnatng book The Double Helx n whch Watson (1968) descrbed how they dd t. From ths pont of vew, scentfc method may more usefully be thought of as a way of wrtng up research rather than as a way of carryng t out. Questons 29-0 Readng Passage 12 has seven paragraphs A-G. Choose the most sutable headngs for paragraphs C-G from the lst of headngs below. Wrte the approprate numbers -x n boxes 29- on your answer sheet. Lst of Headngs The Crck and Watson approach to research Antdotes to bacteral nfecton

3 The testng of hypotheses v Explanng the nductve method v Antcpatng results before data s collected v How research s done and how t s reported v v The role of hypotheses n scentfc research Deducng the consequences of hypotheses x Karl Popper s clam that the scentfc method s hypothetco-deductve x The unbased researcher Example Paragraph A Answer: x 2 9 Paragraph C 0 Paragraph D 1 Paragraph E 2 Paragraph F Paragraph G

4 Questons 4 and 5 In whch TWO paragraphs n Readng Passage12 does the wrter gve advce drectly to the reader? Wrte the TWO approprate letters (A G) n boxes 4 and 5 on your answer sheet. Questons 6-9 Do the followng statements reflect the opnons of the wrter n Readng Passage 12? In boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet wrte YES f the statement reflects the opnon of the wrter. NO f the statement contradcts the opnon of the wrter. NOT GIVEN f t s mpossble to say what the wrter thnks about ths 6 Popper says that the scentfc method s hypothetco-deductve. 7 If a predcton based on a hypothess s fulflled, then the hypothess s confrmed as true. 8 Many people carry out research n a mstaken way. 9 The scentfc method s more a way of descrbng research than a way of dong t. Queston 40 Choose the approprate letter A-D and wrte t n box 40 on your answer sheet. Whch of the followng statements best descrbes the wrter s man purpose n Readng Passage? A to advse Ph.D students not to cheat whle carryng out research. B to encourage Ph.D students to work by guesswork and nspraton. C to explan to Ph.D students the logc whch the scentfc research paper follows. D to help Ph.D students by explanng dfferent conceptons of the research process. 答案 : 29. v 0. v v. v 4. B

5 5. F 6. YES 7. No 8. NOT GIVEN 9. YES 40. D