Chapter 1 - Section 1.3 - Study Guide - Assess Your Learning Outcome - Page 24: 3

The use off the inductive method of investigation proceeds by first making observations and gathering what one thinks is an adequate amount of data . The experimenter the examines and analyses the data and records/describes results accureatel and unbiasedly. The experimenter should make repeated observations before making generalizations or coming to conclusions. For instances if an biologist trapped ten mongooses and they all had brown tails, one may be inclined to say that all mongooses have brown tails. However, ten observations is not enough to form the basis of a solid generalization. If one caught and examined 300 mongooses and they all had brown tails it would be reasonable to generalize that mongooses have brown tails. Of course this is a tentative generalization. And it can be falsified by more observations and wider study of mongooses. Some mongooses do have white tails Anatomists use the inductive methods A study using the deductive method (deductive-hypothetico) starts with the formulation of a hypothesis. which suggests a method for answering a question. A hypothesis must be in keeping with proven knowledge about a subject , and must be capable of being tested and falsified. If nothing could prove an hypothesis wrong it is not a scientific hypothesis. The "If question" of an hypothesis " If ---then" ; for example, if I water some of my plants with dilute skim milk (1:10). the plants watered with skim milk will grow faster thanthe plants watered with tap water. The observations made of the relevant plants will yield data . These are then analyzed, unbiasedly, and rigorously and conclusions reached. If experimental results do not support or a hypothesis , the observations must be repeated several times. If the the hypothesis is not supported after several experiments , it must be modified and retested. Eventually, if it is falsified, it must be abandoned and a new hypothesis formulated. physiologists use hypothetico-deductive methods. Disciplines that are qualitative in nature also use the deductive method

There is no room for dogma in science.. While we cannot prove anything beyond all possible refutation, we accept as scientific facts things that have been tested and confirmed by repeated reliable observations and not falsified by any reasonable method .