To be studied scientifically, any behavior must be:

Lawful – every event can be understood as a predictable sequence of natural causes

and effects. Behavior is lawful, because if it isn’t (and instead is random), then we
could never understand it.

Determinism- behavior is solely influenced by natural causes and does not depend
on a individual’s choice or ‘free will.’

Understandable- any scientific statement must logically and rationally fit with the
known facts so that it can be understood.

Pseudo-explanations – giving as the reason for an event another name for that
event.
- finding a word defined in a dictionary with a word which is in turn defined by the
word you were looking up

Absolute threshold: the point at which a sensation is first reported

Differential threshold: the least amount of change in a stimulus that will give rise to
a change in sensation

Applied research is conducted for the purpose of solving an existing real-life

problem.

Basic research is conducted simply for the knowledge it produces.