Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. The scientific method involves careful observation coupled with rigorous skepticism, because cognitive assumptions can distort the interpretation of the observation.
Scientific method – body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge. It is based on observable , empirical , reproducible , measurable evidence , and subject to the laws of reasoning .
Write a descriptive method of observation and the results or conclusions reached; Have peers with experience researching the same phenomenon evaluate the results; Observations play a role in the second and fifth steps of the scientific method. However, the need for reproducibility requires that observations by different observers can be comparable.
Indirect observation can be used if one wishes to be entirely unobtrusive in their observation method. This can often be useful if a researcher is approaching a particularly sensitive topic that would be likely to elicit reactivity in the subject. There are also potential ethical concerns that are avoided by using the indirect observational method.
One way of describing scientific method would then contain these steps as a minimum: Make a set of observations regarding the phenomenon being studied. Form a hypothesis that might explain the observations. (This may involve inductive and/or abductive reasoning.) Identify the implications and outcomes that must follow, if the hypothesis is to ...
Scientific evidence is closely related to empirical evidence but not all forms of empirical evidence meet the standards dictated by scientific methods. Sources of empirical evidence are sometimes divided into observation and experimentation , the difference being that only experimentation involves manipulation or intervention: phenomena are ...
Observation is critical to scientific research and activity, and as such, observer bias may be as well. [4] When such biases exist, scientific studies can result in an over- or underestimation of what is true and accurate, which compromises the validity of the findings and results of the study, even if all other designs and procedures in the ...
In scientific use, the term empirical refers to the gathering of data using only evidence that is observable by the senses or in some cases using calibrated scientific instruments. What early philosophers described as empiricist and empirical research have in common is the dependence on observable data to formulate and test theories and come to ...