Define folk psychology and outline its limitations.

Define folk psychology and outline its limitations.

Folk psychology could be better described as commonsense psychology, really a layman’s way of understanding and attempting to explain human behaviour as well as mental state. Serious limitations exist which include that it is based on a relatively small sample size (typically less than 150 people) and is limited in its time frame; usually a human life span. Most limiting, folk psychology is undertaken using little if no scientific rigour and would not be described as exhaustive and comprehensive.
How did Kant synthesise Empiricism and Rationalism?

Rationalism, where logical thought is the ultimate source of knowledge, was followed by the theory of Empiricism, where in contrast knowledge is believed to come primarily from experience and observation.

Kant combined the strengths of these opposing philosophical thoughts and proposed that we needed both. To Kant, although experiencing an event was crucial, further analysis by a human mind is required to process this experience and to make it useful and meaningful, resulting in knowledge generation. At the centre of his universe was the human mind – which is where we make sense of the laws of nature, giving us useful predictive ability. As humans – the mind groups things together. In addition, Kant also raised an important question of could we be both the object and subject in the study of humans.
How does the stage of psychological theory development impact on the generation of research questions?

The stage of theory development will impact the design chosen (and hence also the questions used) and this depends on the state of knowledge in the area as well as the maturity of the research (very few theories stay static). Theories at an advanced stage of theory development will typically have a more refined design, resulting in asking specific questions to answer specific hypothesis. In contrast, research in areas that are new or immature, or that are at an early stage of theory development will have questions that start out in a more general and are wide ranging in nature
What are some of the ethical problems that can limit the conduct of psychological research?

Ethics are norms for conduct that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable research behaviour. Although the implementation of a code of Ethics could potentially limit the conduct and reach of some psychological research, it is in place to prevent a situation where, following an experiment, participants will have an outcome that is detrimental to their well, and clearly the risk to the participants far outweighed any gain.

The result is a code of ethics, which varies slightly between countries and organisations. Generally these follow the same principles; where participation must be voluntary, there is the need to obtain informed consent and to maintain participant confidentiality, with an over arching principle of ‘Do no harm’.

Measuring psychological constructs or concepts involves operationalising them.

What does this involve?
Operationalisation involves defining the measurement of something that is not directly measureable. It results in defining an unclear concept to make the theoretical concept distinguishable or measurable.
It takes a variable from theoretical, to real and specific, and defines the variable in terms of the methods the researcher uses to measure or manage the variable. More simply – its deciding what data will demonstrate the existence of a particular concept. Operational definitions are rules for moving between data and concepts
Importantly a researcher must be able to justify their choice of indicators as they are the link between the abstract world and reality.

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