The Scientific Nature of Educational Psychology||Why educational psychol...

THE SCIENTIFIC NATURE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Science

Science can be defined as a systematic and controlled scientific study of phenomena (that is, facts or happenings) based on logical thinking and the observation and analysis of empirical (visible) evidence differ from philosophy and art in ways that we will describe below. To understand the nature of science in general and of educational psychology in particular you will need to learn more about the scientific approach and get to know some basic scientific terms

The Scientific Approach

Whereas the artist focuses on the creation of new ideas, the scientist focuses on the identification and resolution of problems. The artist may ask, "How can I express what I feel about my childhood school experiences? The scientist, on the other hand, may ask. "Does the frequency with which small children listen to stones make a difference in their desire to learn to read? or "How much and under what conditions do reward and punishment affect the way children do their school work?

Much as artists choose topics to reflect personal interests, scientists choose their research problems and fields of specialization in terms of their individual concerns. Some educational psychologists study learning (how a person comes to know something). Others concentrate on motivation (what makes a person behave in one way rather than another Sull other educational psychologists try to find out more about socialization (how a person learns to get along in society)

No matter what subject or kind of problem they investigate educational psychologists tend to use two major approaches in their work the deductive and the inductive methods

Deductive Method

In the deductive method, the scientist uses logic and general information to formulate a possible solution to a given problem. The scientists then test this solution (in several typical situations. In the deductive approach then, a person reasons from the general to the specific

Inductive Method

In the inductive method, the scientist observes many different attempts to solve a given kind of problem On the basis of these observations, the scientist draws a conclusion and formulates possible solutions to similar problems. In the inductive approach, a person moves logically and systematically from the specific to the general.