Correct Scientific Attitudes

Scientific attitude is really a composite of a number of mental habits, or of tendencies to react consistently in certain ways to a novel or problematic situation. These habits or tendencies include a habit of looking for true cause and effect relationships. It is a cognitive concept; scientific attitudes are normally associated with the mental processes of scientists. These habits are important in the everyday life and thinking, not only of the scientist, but of everyone. The following are the right attitudes:

Beliefs. A scientist believes that everything that happens in this world has a cause or reason.

Curiosity. A scientist shows interest and pays particular attentions to objects or events. He asks questions and seeks answers.

Objectivity. A scientist is objective if he does not allow his feelings and biases to influence his recording of observations, interpretation of data, and formulation of conclusions.

A scientist is willing to suspend judgment until he/she has made sure that his/her explanation to an event is correct. He/she is hardworking and persistent. By this, scientists pursue their scientific investigations despite obstacles and failures.

 Critical-mindedness. A scientist bases suggestions and conclusions on evidences. When in doubt, he questions the veracity of a statement in relation to the evidences presented.

Open-mindedness.  A scientist listens to and respects the ideas of others. He accepts criticism and changes his mind if reliable evidence contradicts his believes. A scientist can generate new and original ideas. He/she tries new approaches to arrive at better solutions. When the answers do not make sense, a scientist must combine logic, creativity, and curiosity to analyze data and conduct further experiments if necessary.

Risk-taking. A scientist expresses his opinions and tries new ideas even at the risk of failure or criticism. He is able to accept that he is not perfect and may fail.

 Intellectual honesty. A scientist gives a truthful report of observations. He does not withhold important information just to please himself or others.

  Humility. A scientist is humble when he admits that he is not free from commiting errors. He recognizes that there may be better ideas and realizes that there are individuals whom he may have to consult to arrive at correct observations and conclusions.

  Responsibility. A scientist actively participates in a task and also dutifully performs tasks assigned to him.

Patience and Perseverance. If you want to do a laborious experiments or tasks, make sure you have enough patience to do it.  Whether your experiment or tasks consume so much time and efforts which may result into either be success or failure, you do not give up nor say ‘”I do not continue it anymore.”  Optimize your patience and persistence to attain your goal.

Organized and Systematic. If you want to search for something, be organized or systematic.  Follow the steps of scientific method.  Do things one at a time.  Prepare and label all necessary materials for your experiments.  Strictly perform the given procedure.