What do you call the term which refers to the process acquiring knowledge through observation and experimentation?

How do we define science?
 According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, the definition of science is "knowledge attained through study or practice," or "knowledge covering general truths of the operation of general laws, esp. as obtained and tested through scientific method [and] concerned with the physical world."

  What does that really mean?
 Science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge. This system uses observation and experimentation to describe and explain natural phenomena.

  The term science also refers to the organized body of knowledge people have gained using that system. Less formally, the word science often describes any systematic field of study or the knowledge gained from it.

  What is the purpose of science?
 Perhaps the most general description is that the purpose of science is to produce useful models of reality.

  Most scientific investigations use some form of the scientific method.

The Different Fields of Science Offered at GHS:

Biology:
 Biology is the branch of science dealing with the study of life. It describes the characteristics, classification, and behaviors of organisms, how species come into existence, and the interactions they have with each other and with the environment. Biology has many specialized areas, covering a wide range of scales, from biochemistry to ecology.

Earth Science:
 Earth science (also known as geoscience) deals with study of the planet Earth. It uses an interdisciplinary approach, including aspects of physics, geography, mathematics, chemistry, and biology. Some of the specialized areas include: geology (study of the rocky parts of the Earth's crust), oceanography and hydrology (marine and freshwater systems), and atmospheric sciences (weather and climate).

Learning Objectives

• Define Psychology

What is creativity? Why do some people become homeless? What are prejudice and discrimination? What is consciousness? The field of psychology explores questions like these. Psychology refers to the scientific study of the mind and behavior. Psychologists use the scientific method to acquire knowledge. To apply the scientific method, a researcher with a question about how or why something happens will propose a tentative explanation, called a hypothesis, to explain the phenomenon. A hypothesis should fit into the context of a scientific theory, which is a broad explanation or group of explanations for some aspect of the natural world that is consistently supported by evidence over time. A theory is the best understanding we have of that part of the natural world. The researcher then makes observations or carries out an experiment to test the validity of the hypothesis. Those results are then published or presented at research conferences so that others can replicate or build on the results.

Figure 1. Antonio Canova’s sculpture depicts Eros and Psyche. Psyche, which means soul, represents the human soul’s triumph over life—as Psyche was a mortal woman who completed a series of impossible tasks to reunite with her love (Aphrodite’s son, Eros) and become a goddess herself.

Scientists test that which is perceivable and measurable. For example, the hypothesis that a bird sings because it is happy is not a hypothesis that can be tested easily since we have no way to measure the happiness of a bird accurately. We must ask a different question, perhaps about the brain state of the bird, since this can be measured. However, we can ask people about whether they sing because they are happy since they are able to tell us. Thus, psychological science is empirical, based on measurable data.

In general, science deals only with matter and energy, that is, those things that can be measured, and it cannot arrive at knowledge about values and morality. This is one reason why our scientific understanding of the mind is so limited. The scientific method is also a form of empiricism. An empirical method for acquiring knowledge is one based on observation, including experimentation, rather than a method based only on forms of logical argument or previous authorities.

It was not until the late 1800s that psychology became accepted as its own academic discipline. Before this time, the workings of the mind were considered under the auspices of philosophy. Given that any behavior is, at its roots, biological, some areas of psychology take on aspects of a natural science like biology. No biological organism exists in isolation, and our behavior is influenced by our interactions with others. Therefore, psychology is also a social science.

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Glossary

empirical method: method for acquiring knowledge based on observation, including experimentation, rather than a method based only on forms of logical argument or previous authorities

ology: suffix that denotes “scientific study of”

psyche: Greek word for soul

psychology: the scientific study of mental processes and behavior

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