IS Psychology A Science? Issues & Debates.

Debates in psychology Is psychology a science?

Is psychology a science? Psychology is a relatively new subject discipline and it has often struggled to be taken as seriously as ‘traditional’ science subjects such as biology, chemistry and physics. If psychology was to be regarded as a science then: there is the possibility that the subject could have a greater status. This could lead to increased funding for research it also helps us to think about what psychology is and how psychology should be done.

What you need to know: Describe the debate over what science is, including how far psychology fits the definition Evaluate whether psychology should be called a science, including where ethnocentrism and cultural relativity fit.

Psychology and scientific subject matter Consider the following questions Are the subjects of psychology scientific? Are the methods scientific?

In general the scientific approach can be said to have the following features in common: Objectivity: science subjects should be free from personal views and feeling; this is known as being subjective. Falsifiability: theories should be able to be disproved. If a theory can be disproved it clearly does not work and, alternatively, if a theory can be proved it does work. Replicability: only the findings from methods that can be replicated by others are accepted.

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Term explanation example Hypothesis writing Drawing an idea from something and making a statement about what is then expected from it Noticing lots of white swans ,hypothesis: all swans are white Empirical testing Testing the idea against reality Looking at lots of swans and checking that they are white falsification Trying to prove a hypothesis is false You can only prove that they are not all white not that they are all white reductionism Reducing complex issues to small parts The actions of a drug are focused on a small part of the brain controls Reducing bias by controlling variables Biases include experimenter effects, situational and participant variables and wider issues eg ethnocentrism.

Is psychology a science? All sciences share a common method of investigation. 1. Systematic empiricism (“data-driven”) 2. Production of public knowledge (“objectivity”) a) replication b) peer review 3. Examination of solvable problems (not looking for the meaning of life); “empirical questions” Why this method? You can’t just assume that things will happen the way that you think they will (biases). You need to have evidence!

Does Psychology meet the criteria of science? Psychology uses the scientific method to study the full range of human and non-human behaviour, and its applications are scientifically based. 1. Psychology is not just Freud! The full range of behaviour encompasses many topics. The research methods are very different, but systematic observation is common to all topics. the above lead to further study and replication

Does Psychology meet the criteria of science? 2. Production of public knowledge for peer review publications (journals, books) presentations, talks, posters 3 Asks solvable questions uses operational definitions (terms of measurement) to test hypotheses (predictions) derived from theories (concepts that explain data and predict future events)

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Arguments for psychology as a science. Scientific research is desirable- Those who sought to create a science from psychology were able to do so by producing verifiable evidence. Certain areas of psychology are scientific. E.g. physiological, and genetic psychology.

Arguments against psychology as a science. Psychological experiments lack external validity. That is finding from experiments are not always supported by real life observations. Psychological experiments lack internal validity, that is, the observed effects may result from variables other than experimental manipulation. What other problems do psychologists face when conducting experiments??

Induction & Deduction (combine to produce scientific method). Inductive process Deductive process

Deductive and Inductive reasoning. Inductive process- Reasoning from particular to general E.g. Scientists may observe instances of a natural phenomenon and derive a general law (inductive) Deductive process- Reasoning from general to particular. E.g. Start with a theory & look for instances that confirm this (deduction).

Against Deductive Reasoning. The concept of Falsibility. Theories are not fine tuned by successive experiments. Normal science Revolutionary shift. NEW THEORY PREVAILS AND A SHIFT IN OPINION OCCURS!! ONE THEORY REMAINS DOMINANT UNTIL GROWING EVIDENCE PROVES OTHERWISE AND THE THEORY CAN NO LONGER BE MAINTAINED. A2 PSYCHOLOGY

Against Inductive reasoning. Theories should be refutable and should aim to falsify rather than support theories Falsification is best achieved by advancing bold and precise hypotheses, and if the theory is falsified it should be rejected. Thus Popper suggests that science is advanced through refutation rather than support. This is why we always ensure that we include null hypotheses.

A few words on the debate…for psychology as a science. As psychologists are we looking for the same achievements as other scientist's X causes Y in physics but can we say the same for human behaviour? Falsibility- Freud's theory is not falsifiable…if a theory is cannot be falsified it is not scientific.

A few words on the debate…against psychology as a science. There are success stories in psychology based upon lab experiments i.e. bystander behaviour. Similar problems occur with other sciences. Heisenberg (1927) argued that it is not possible to measure subatomic particle without altering it’s behaviour by doing the measurement. In psychology we would call this a__________ ______________