Is psychology a science? What does a science subject need to have? Objective, (obese) Falsifibility, (fat) Replicability, (rat)

OBJECTIVITY Scientific research needs to be OBJECTIVE. Objective studies obtain results that are not biased by personal views. therefore experiments can be carried out that collects quantitative data and has strictly controlled . This means that cause and effect can be established. Key study:

FALSIFIABILTY Scientific research must be FALSIFIABLE. This means that if a theory is scientific then it can be proved wrong (false). This is an important characteristic of a scientific theory, because if the theory is falsifiable then it is useful. Key study: Freud’s theory assumes that schizophrenia, is a defence mechanism. Which is non-falsifiable, because we can’t prove it wrong as its based in the unconscious mind.

REPLICABILITY The methods should be able to be replicated! If the replicated experiments provide back up evidence to back up the theory then it is thought of as SCIENTIFIC. Key study:

…the problems… It’s hard to make an experiment completely objective, as researcher bias can be a problem. Psychological research is very different to other sciences as humans are complex so this hard to find general laws for their behaviour. Samples: a representative sample is needed to be generalisable to a whole population Procedures: are simplistic compared to real life, therefore they sometimes lack ecological validity. Participant variables: can be a problem as ppts can bring their past learning and experiences to experiments. They may also put on demand characteristics or social desirability bias

…further problems… Experimenter effects: experimenter can influence participants without meaning to, by giving subtle clues of how they should behave. Therefore the behaviour may not be genuine. Some psychological approaches are more scientific than others. For example biological, cognitive and behaviourist are more scientific as empirical methods are mostly used. Therefore quantitative data can be collected and they can be replicated. However social and psychodynamic approaches are based on other methods, meaning that variables are hard to operationalise and control and sometimes cannot be replicated.