Research Methods Essay

In Chapter 7 of The Unpersuadables: Adventures with the Enemies of Science, Will Storr addressed his time spent exploring homeopathy and skepticism. First, he wrote about his interview with Gemma, an activist for homeopathy whose interview with BBC Radio Five Live went viral online after someone edited a rubber duck saying ‘Quack’ over her every time she spoke. Since the editor of Gemma’s video was presumably a Skeptic, Storr then transitioned into writing about his time spent exploring Skeptic culture. He wrote under the assumption that Skepticism is founded on the principle of which “it’s incredibly important that people not get carried away with wishful thinking, with stuff they would like to be true” (Storr 103). However, Storr went on

Pseudoscience is a claim or belief that does not conform to the scientific method. Generally, pseudoscience will have a lack of scientific evidence and will seem almost as an exaggeration. The evidence that is there to support it is not heavily supported or seems to be conforming to fit the “hypothesis”. In the article I found, James Cameron dove by himself to the deepest part of

Religious intellectuals -- now that's an oxymoron if I ever saw one -- attempt to discredit well-established theories with stories of magic and miracles that cannot be validated through scientific evidence, but rather, through one's faith. To exemplify this point, God said, "Let there be light," but the reader later finds out that the Sun was not created until the fourth day!

Mostly everyone has done a simple scientific experiment in high school. It is very similar to a real experiment that scientist conduct. They select a topic, make a hypothesis, make a data table, conduct the actual experiment, collect the data, the finally come to a conclusion. This will see if their predictions or hypotheses are correct. On the other hand, pseudoscientist never carry out an well careful experiment. Pseudoscientist usually claim that they have done an experience that isn't as accurate as real scientists

The article, “The Needs of Men with Prostate Cancer: Results of a Focus Group Study”, is considered a Research study. The article the “Effects of a Palliative Care Intervention on Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Advanced Cancer”, is consider an evidence based research study. The article, “Depressive Symptoms Among HIV-Positive Pregnant Women in Thailand” is consider to also be evidence based research study. Lastly, the article, “Increasing Patient Attendance in a Pediatric Obesity Clinic: A Quality Improvement Project”, is considered a quality improvement research study.

His first commandment for his instructors is to distinguish between the characteristics of pseudoscience and science respectively, which fits well with Willingham’s ten questions. His second commandment is to distinguish between skepticism and cynicism; he notes that when teaching students to distinguish between science and pseudoscience, some will being to reflexively dismiss anything that seems at first glance to be implausible. Therefore, Lilienfeld stresses the necessity for moderation when distinguishing between studies. Lilienfeld’s third commandment supplements his second commandment, students must distinguish between methodological skepticism and philosophical skepticism. This commandment is reiterating the need for moderation when examining research studies. His fourth commandment states that students must distinguish between pseudoscientific claims and claims that are merely false. The main idea behind this commandment is the fundamental idea that science and pseudoscience differ based on their approach to evidence, not their content. Lilienfeld continues on with his fifth commandment to distinguish science from scientists. He points that scientists are susceptible to biases, even when aided by the scientific method. His sixth commandment instructs students to explain the cognitive motivations of pseudoscience. Furthermore, in his seventh commandment, Lilienfeld concedes that pseudoscience does have important functions, especially to motivate people through their deep seated fears and hopes. His eighth commandment instructs professors to educate their students in both science and pseudoscience examples. His ninth commandment preaches consistency with one’s intellectual standards with students. His final commandment is for instructors to distinguish between pseudoscientific claims and

The author of this article talks about the increasing number of obese children in America and what it will take to have healthy and nutritious school lunch programs provided to school children. During a survey performed by the author on many children who are suffering from obesity in America and the health problems these unhealthy school lunches are creating, the lunches were analyzed based on content of nutritional value and how harmful school lunches are to children. The author suggests a more nutritious and healthy lunch will help children’s obesity decrease so children will not have health issues linked to obesity and

Pseudoscience was developing in the western world after the enlightenment movement. The term was developed in order to portray con artist. Pseudoscience was seen to be used first during 1844. By the twentieth century the term was extended further. The idea of pseudoscience was to give recognition to skeptical ideas and practicing scientist. Pseudoscience is an important when thinking rationally. It allows to determine the concepts behind extrasensory perceptions, as well as many other concepts. Pseudoscience is known to be involved with science. However, pseudoscience is actually based on theories, predictions and the human beings everyday thought and not as an actually

Theory creation is an important part of the scientific method in psychological science. Theories epitomises current knowledge about a given topic and scientific theories support further theorising to occur allowing empirical evidence to be gathered and knowledge to grow (Beth Morling). In order for a theory to be scientific it must have the ability to be falsified. When a theory is not falsifiable it then becomes prohibitive to the growth of knowledge and is thus pseudoscientific. This conclusion can be drawn through the comparison of the theory creation of Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein. When creating the theory of relativity, Einstein stated the factors in which his theory would be falsified, allowing knowledge to further advance in the

These volunteers were both male and female, and they were a combination of superstitious people and skeptic people.The volunteers were asked through email to complete a completely voluntary and confidential survey. The survey asked the volunteers to decide whether a given set of objects or biological things, like a tiger’s tooth or a mountain, had any sort of purpose. They were to rate the purpose of each object on a scale from one to five, one having no purpose and five having a very obvious purpose. Their hypothesis ended up being supported by their experiment. Another author, Stephen Lukes gave his own explanation for the reason people have need for superstition. He wrote that for centuries people have been using natural disasters to explain

Much of human belief and/or conditioning is the result of factors which are not considered to be scientific works per se, from time to time these sources may be noted in an attempt to help the reader better explore the topic from the vantage point of these sources and their own belief systems and conditioning. Often it has been part of the human and non-human ape experience that many factors have shaped their behavior in ways which are not strictly scientific..

In Micheal Blow’s article, “Religious Constriction”, he expresses his disbelief on the ignorance people have towards scientific facts. He takes the left wing perspective of religion and science and approaches the topic diplomatically. Blow believes that religious people only support scientific fact when it does not attack their religious beliefs and if facts are not in congruency with religion they disregard the

As to the learning of scientific method, the whole thing is palpably 25 a farce. Actually, for the convenience of teachers and the requirements of the examination system, it is necessary that the pupils not only do not learn scientific method but learn precisely the reverse, that is, to believe exactly what they are told and to reproduce it when asked, whether it seems nonsense to them or 30 not. The way in which educated people respond to such quackeries as spiritualism or astrology, not to say more dangerous ones such as racial theories or currency myths, shows that fifty years of education in the method of science in Britain or Germany has produced no visible effect whatever. The only way of learning the 35 method of science is the long and bitter way of personal experience, and, until the educational or social systems are altered to make this possible, the best we can expect is the production of a minority of people who are able to acquire some of the techniques of science and a still smaller minority who are able to use and 40 develop them. Adapted from: The Social Function of Science, John D Bernal

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time Michael Shermer relates Frank J. Tipler to Voltaire's character Pangloss to show how clever people deceive

A hypothesis is not a question, but rather it is a statement about the relationship between two or more variables. A research question is a question that the research project sets out to answer. In fact, a research study may set out to answer several questions. Be a qualitative research study, the following two research questions that underpin the study, and also needed to be answered by the