Discuss to What Extent Psychology Can Be Considered a Science.

Psychology is defined as the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, psychology is useful in many ways.

Psychology can be presented by the media in forms such as magazine or newspaper articles, and the most popular today is through commercials watched on TV. Psychology is presented in a form of science today compared to what it was viewed as in the late 1800s and onto the 1900s. It is more of a science nature because viewers have to think about the meaning of the article or commercial to understand the message that is being presented. Then, psychology was viewed as a form or common sense. Psychology was never really looked at as a science but rather as philosophy in the 1980s. The public was often confused with the subject of psychology because it was always

There has been an ongoing debate on whether psychology is indeed scientific, although recent, psychology is now considered a science. This is because it uses scientific methodology in researching, devising treatments and measuring the outcomes. These methods include collecting and analysing data and concluding their findings in order to identify whether the research or treatment adequality solves the problem. Scientific studies must be replicable, this means the if repeated exactly the same, the results should produce an identical outcome. Replicability can be increased by ruling out any alternatives that may not have originally been thought of. Objectivity in science is the idea that scientist, in an attempt to get the best results, must first

Psychology is defined by Merriam-Webster, as the science of mind and behavior. It is a study of how an individual's psyche can be created, developed, altered or destroyed. Carol Gilligan, a Harvard Graduate School professor, for many years has analyzed the psychological theory and development, specifically in a book entitled In A Different Voice.

Qualitative and quantitative researches are the two basic research categories which are used in psychology, with both these type of research having advantages and best limitations to their use in researching.

Psychology is a science that is normally subjected to an argument. There is also criticism of psychology has not been around long enough to develop a standard, or had established a system of ideas that has been accepted by most specialists in the public, and also lacks the important characteristics of a science. Psychology has roots in other fields including the non-scientific disciplines such as philosophy, which makes it even harder to classify it with the traditional science such as biology and chemistry.

Descriptive research, this will not answer questions like how, when, why it has happened. It describes the characteristics of a citizens or circumstance being studied. Instead it tells us the “what” question what are the traits of the citizens or situation being studied? Although this research is highly accurate, it does not gather the causes behind a situation. So if we did a study on say “How many gangs are in Los Angeles?” This will give us an answer of how many of something, like a situation that is being studied. (Babbie, 2008)

The Greek word Psychology, is a word consisted of the words ψυχή-soul and λόγος-utterance, talk. So, generally, psychology is the science that examines the soul. But , since the psychologists work on the problems of the personal, family, school, professional and social life, we could say, more

Many centuries have passed and a majority of the public still rejects the belief that psychology is not a science, however, there are many points made in How to Think Straight about Psychology that supports the idea that psychology is, in fact, a science. It first begins with the problem that Freud created; ultimately making theories with no science-based evidence which I think made the science and subject of psychology begin with a bad start. Stanovich explains in this chapter that, because there are multiple fields of psychology, it doesn’t make much sense to put them all in the same category. The public was not clearly seeing one important characteristic of psychology that made it a science: “the main search for psychologists was to completely understand human behavior by using the methods of science.” (p. 2) I am convinced that, because psychologists were

In order to be considered a science, Psychology must consequently adhere to using a scientific method. If this were, as usual,

Psychological research describes investigations psychologists undertake in order to review and analyse a specific hypothesis, (a theory about the relationship between defined variables). Research allows theories to be confirmed, amended or rejected and often leads to further research as requirements evolve. Psychological research can take many forms, from laboratory based experiments to non-invasive viewing of subjects in their own environment. This research can take place using human or non-human subjects and the analysed results applied to human behaviour or experience within many disciplines including, education, legal or occupational.

In Psychology 101 we learned that research methods are used in order to understand our mental and behavioral processes by making observations in a systematic way, following strict rules of evidence and thinking critically about that evidence. This scientific research is based on theories (tentative explanations of observations in science), hypotheses (predictions based on a theory) and replication (testing a hypothesis in more than one study). Some of the different research methods are firstly, descriptive studies. Descriptive studies are studies that use survey methods, naturalistic observation and clinical methods. Another research method is correlational studies. Correlational studies are studies that help one to determine if a relationship exists between two or more variables and if so it tells one how strongly those two variables relate to one another. With in correlational studies one can have positive correlation (as one variable increases or decreases so does the other), negative correlation (variables go in opposite directions) or zero correlation (no relationship between the variables). Another research method is formal experiments. Formal experiments are studies that allow us to draw conclusions about how one variable may cause or have an effect on another variable. With in formal experiments there are four elements, which are the independent variable (variable that is manipulated or controlled), the dependent variable (variable that is measured), the experimental

Psychology is defined as the study of the human mind and its functions the mind is studied through experimentation and observation and just like the other sciences, needs empirical evidence, therefore, it is a science. There has always been a large debate about it though because the mind is such a tricky topic, some people even go on to call it an art which they back up with valid points. Psychology is different from many other sciences because it’s less concrete. For example in chemistry, biology and physics most things we learn about are laws, well in Psychology there are no laws that have been discovered yet. Because the mind is such a sensitive thing laws are tricky because there could always be one outcast, the same doesn’t apply for the other sciences though because if we are told that the mass of one Oxygen atom is 15.999 g/mol, we could never find one Oxygen atom that wasn’t 15.999 g/mol. As there are differences there are also similarities between Psychology and other sciences. One similarity as stated before is that psychology as all other sciences need empirical evidence to support claims and make theories and, for other sciences, laws. Another similarity is that things like “common sense” and popular opinion aren’t always the best to use to find answers you’re looking for.

Psychology is a study of mind and behavior. Psychological research is mostly focused on the relationship between thought, behavior and emotion; how one influences the other and what are the consequences of such interaction. Put simply, psychology is a field associated with the drive to understand the way human mind works. The topic is slightly enigmatic, but at the same time very challenging and complicated. Where representatives of the exact sciences depend on data, facts and figures, psychologists tend to rely on behavior. Seeing that the majority of work done by psychologists is

~One of the goals of science is description (other goals include prediction and explanation). Descriptive research methods are pretty much as they sound — they describe situations. They do not make accurate predictions, and they do not determine cause and effect.