Developmental psychology.pdf

Psychology in Our Times
Figure 1.3
Therapist and Client. While
therapist-client similarity is a factor in
the success of treatment, the wide
diversity of methods today
emphasizes that no one approach is
uniquely successful.
this view that a single behavior pattern is rarely determined by a single event. We
describe the factors which currently seem most important and, insofar as possible,
indicate how they have been identified.
Virtually all areas of human functioning appear to illustrate the multiple basis
of behavior. There is no single answer, for example, to the human effort at the conquest
of space. There is also no simple answer, as we shall see, to much narrower questions,
such as how we perceive color, illusions, or space itself. Virtually all areas of human
functioning involve this idea of multiple causation.
Scientific Method
Science, based on certain assumptions, also follows a certain approach, sometimes called
the scientific method, an expression that is in error. The different areas of scientific
inquiry involve different approaches, and one of the constant tasks of modern science
is to develop improved methods of research. Instead, the fundamental characteristic
of science is an attitude—one of demanding evidence.
Stages of Scientific Inquiry In idealized form, this evidence is obtained in three
stages or steps, sometimes referred to as the scientific process. These steps include
forming a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and verifying the result.
In the conventional view, research begins by forming a hypothesis, which is a
guess or an early explanation. The investigator has in mind some idea about orderliness
or causality. In the research on the three Christs, the hypothesis was that one or more
of the three men, when confronted with another delusional Christ, would abandon his
belief.