Scientific Thinking

Written by: Mariyan Ivanov

Student’s number:1023315
JMSc European Business and Finance
Styles of thinking
• Empiricism-to donate observations and propositions based on
sense experience and/or derived from such experience by methods
of inductive logic, including mathematics and statistics.
• Rationalism-reason is a primary source of knowledge.
Rationalism differs from empiricism in that rationalists believe all
knowledge can be deduced from known laws or basic truths of
nature. This is claimed to be possible because underlying laws
structure the world logically.
• Untested opinion-form of knowing that people cling to
despite contrary evidence.
• Self-evident truth- is one that is known to be true by
understanding its meaning without proof.
• Persons of authority- too often authority depends on
status or position rather than on true expertise. Such
authorities are often wrong, so it is wise to accept their
views cautiously. Authorities serve as important sources
of knowledge but should be judged by their integrity,
the quality of the evidence they present and their
willingness to present an open and balanced case.
• The literary style of thinking- literary perspective is one
where “a person, a movement, or a whole culture is
interpreted, but largely in terms of the specific purposes and
perspectives of the actors, rather than in terms of the abstract
and general categories of the scientist’s own explanatory
scheme”
• Scientific method-the essential principals:1-direct observation
of phenomena,2-clearly defined variables, methods and
procedures,3-empiracally testable hypothesis,4-the ability to
rule out rival hypothesis,5-the statistical rather than linguistic
justification of conclusions and 6-self-correcting process.
• Postulational style-studies in operations research,
management science, mathematical modeling, and
simulation are postulational. One goal of the objective is to
reduce the object of study to mathematical, formal terms.
These terms (postulates), are used to devise theorems that
represent logical proofs. The objective is to deduce a
structure that may account for any phenomenon having
similar forms.
The thought process: reasoning
• Deduction- a form of inference that
purports to be inclusive- the conclusion
must necessarily follow the reasons given.
These reasons are said to imply the
conclusion and to represent a proof. For a
deduction to be correct , it must be both
true and valid- that is, the premises
(reasons) given for the conclusion must
agree with the real world (to be true).
• Induction-to induce is to
draw a conclusion from
one or more particular
facts or pieces of evidence.
The conclusion explains
the facts, and the facts
support the conclusion.
• Combining induction and
deduction-induction occurs
when we observe a fact and
ask “Why is this?”. In answer
to this question, we advance a
tentative explanation
(hypothesis).
• The hypothesis is plausible if it
explains the event or condition
(fact) that prompted the
question. Deduction is the
process by which we test
whether the hypothesis is
capable of explaining the fact.
 Reflective thinking and the Scientific method

• Encounters a curiosity, doubt, barrier, suspicion or obstacle

• Struggles to state the problem…
• Proposes hypothesis to explain the facts that are believed to
be logically related to the problem
• Deduces outcomes or consequences of the hypothesis…
• Formulates several rival hypothesis
• Feeds information back into the original problem
• Draws a conclusion, an inductive inference, based on
acceptance or rejection
Understanding theory: components and
connections

• Concept- a bundle of meanings

or characteristics associated with
certain events, objects,
conditions, situations, and the
like.
• Sources of concept-borrow from
other languages or other fields.
Adopt new meaning for words or
develop new labels for concepts.
Problems in concept use
• People differ in the meanings
they include under the
particular label.
• Challenging concepts that are
familiar, but not well
understood, such as leadership,
motivation, personality, social
class and fiscal policy.
Constructs
• An image or idea specifically
invented for a given research
and/or theory-building purpose.
We build constructs by
combining the simpler
concepts, especially when the
idea or image we intend to
convey is not directly subject to
observation.
Variables
• A symbol to which numbers or values are assigned. In
practice, the term variable is used as a synonym for
construct or the property being studied.

Male/Female
Male/Female
Dichotomous
Dichotomous Employed/
Employed/Unemployed
Unemployed

Ethnic
Ethnicbackground
background
Discrete
Discrete Educational
Educationallevel
level
Religious
Religiousaffiliation
affiliation

Income
Income
Temperature
Continuous
Continuous Temperature
Age
Age
 Independent and Dependent Variable

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Presumed cause Presumed effect
Stimulus Response
Predicted from… Predicted to…
Antecedent Consequence
Manipulated Measured outcome
• Moderating variables-is a second independent variable that is
included because it is believe to have a significant
contributory or contingent effect on the originally stated IV-
DV relationship.
• Extraneous variables-are variables other than the independent
variable that may bear any effect on the behavior of the
subject being studied
• Intervening variables-that factor which theoretically affects
the observed phenomenon, but cannot be seen, measured or
manipulated; its effect must be inferred from the effects of the
independent and moderator variables on the observed
phenomenon
Propositions and Hypothesis
• Preposition- a statement about
concepts that may be judged as true or
false if it refers to observe
phenomena. When proposition is
formulated for empirical testing, we
call it hypothesis.
• Hypothesis have also been described
as statements in which we assign
variables of cases. A case is defined in
this sense as the entity or thing the
hypothesis talks about.
• Descriptive hypothesis-propositions that typically
state the existence, size, form, or distribution of some
variables
• Relational hypothesis- statements that describe a
relationship between two variables with respect to
some case. Correlational and explanatory relationship.
The role of the hypothesis
Several important functions:

 it guides the direction of the study

 it identifies facts that are relevant and those that are
not; in so doing, it suggest which form of research
design is likely to be most appropriate
 provide a framework for organizing the conclusions
that result
What is a good hypothesis?
Should fulfill three conditions:

To be adequate for its purpose

Must be testable
Must be better than its rivals
Theory
• A set of systematically interrelated concepts, definitions
and propositions that are advanced to explain and predict
phenomena (facts).

Roles:
Orientation; it narrows the range of facts we need to
study
Suggest a system for the researcher to impose on data in
order to classify them in the most meaningful way
Summarize what is known about the object of study
Predict further facts
Models
• Representation of system that is constructed to study
some aspect of that system or the system as a whole.

• Major functions- description, explication and

simulation
Thank you for your
attention !
References
• “Business Research Methods”-Donald R. Cooper, Pamela S.
Schindler; McGraw Hill Higher Education; 9th edition;
• “A miniature guide to Scientific thinking : For Students and
Faculty” By Dr . Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder
• http://www.readyatfive.org/images/pdfs/scientific_thinking.pdf
• http://www.ejmste.com/v4n3/EURASIA_v4n3_Coll.pdf
• “Scientists and Scientific Thinking: Understanding Scientific
Thinking Through an Investigation of Scientists Views About
Superstitions and Religious Beliefs”; Richard K. Coll and
Mark C. Lay, Neil Taylor; April 2008