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Based on the case, diagnose which ends of the 'method of knowing' spectrum the student's two options fall on, and justify why recognizing this distinction is important for evaluating the information for their research paper.
Case context: A student in an introductory psychology class is preparing to write a research paper. When deciding what to believe about human memory, the student considers two options: trusting their own 'gut feelings' about how memory works, or reviewing controlled laboratory studies that collected data. The student realizes that each option represents a different conceptual process for acquiring information.
Question: Based on the case, diagnose which ends of the 'method of knowing' spectrum the student's two options fall on, and justify why recognizing this distinction is important for evaluating the information for their research paper.
Sample answer: The student's 'gut feeling' falls on the subjective source (intuition) end of the spectrum, while reviewing laboratory studies falls on the empirical evidence end. Recognizing this distinction is important because each method of knowing has its own unique strengths and weaknesses when determining if the derived knowledge should be trusted.
Key points:
- Diagnose the 'gut feeling' as relying on a subjective source like intuition.
- Diagnose the laboratory studies as depending on empirical evidence.
- Justify that these represent different conceptual processes for forming beliefs.
- Justify that each category has unique strengths and weaknesses regarding the trustworthiness of the knowledge.
Rubric: Full credit is awarded for diagnosing the gut feeling as subjective/intuition and the studies as empirical evidence, and justifying the importance by mentioning the unique strengths and weaknesses in trusting the derived knowledge.
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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
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Intuition
Method of Authority
Empiricism
Rationalism
Scientific Method
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