Why do psychologists have to be careful in their research and use of the scientific method??

why ask questions that pretty much mean the same thing??





In any case, as I answered to your other question about" why do psychologits use scientific research to understand behavior?", I said they need to be SCIENTIFIC in order to be OBJECTIVE and TRUTHFUL and not SUNJECTIVE and BIASED.





One uses the different steps of the scientific method in order to obtain results which can be generalized to the population and NOT only to the SAMPLE population. NO BIAS is allowed in Empirical research. Then there would be no point in any discipline being a science.





Again look into the history of Psychology: it has heavily relied on the sciences, such as biology, physiology, neuroanatomy, etc.. in order to explain causes of traumas, etc..


In order to explain causes, effects, etc.... experiments/patients are needed in order to be able to explain to the GENERAL population the causes, effects, etc...





I hope this somewhat helped you :-)

Why do psychologists have to be careful in their research and use of the scientific method??
Because if they aren't careful, and they don't use the scientific method, then their results will end up flawed. The point of the scientific method is that it allows us to catch and quantify errors.





Like in any science, the point of psychology is to learn the truth about how something works. You can't learn the truth if your research is riddled with errors.
Reply:And a scientist has to always weigh the things outside the method he wants to prove. For instance, if you were to take 5 people off the street and do a study about heart disease - but not include family history, whether or not they smoked, whether or not they are overweight, have diabetes or what. Just stick them on a specific diet (that may or may not impact their health), and the results of how many lived and how many died be the result of your test of the diet, you would get a flawed result.
Reply:the scientific method is used to eliminate bias, pre-judgment, error, and unsound methods of collecting , interpreting, or reporting data.





For example, politicians almost NEVER use science. They just do whatever will get them elected. If science dictated what our leaders did, we would have reformed our idiotic tax laws and social security system decades ago.

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