In summary
what makes research in psychology scientific?
- Precision
- Skepticism
- Reliance on empirical evidence
- Hypothesis
- openness
Definition
According to oxford dictionary Advanced learner version; Science is knowledge about the structure and behavior of the natural and the physical world, based on facts you can prove for example by experiments.
Another definition from the same dictionary is that science is a system for organizing the knowledge about a particular subject, especially one concerned with aspects of human behavior or society.
According to Wikipedia; Science is a rigorous, systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world.
Most of text books about science defines science as a set of methods or techniques used to gather systematic information about the world phenomena.
Questions we should ask ourselves when deciding whether psychology is a science may include:
- Is psychology based on facts you can prove by experiments?
- does psychology a body of knowledge that have structure and behavior of the natural world?
- Is psychology a system of organized knowledge?
- Are ideas in psychology testable?
- can psychology be used to predict behavior?
- does psychology have set of methods and techniques that are used to gather systematic data about a certain observation in the discipline?
If all this questions about psychology turns to be true, then psychology is not far from being a science.
Psychology scholars do agree that psychologists uses precise, methodical and systematic means of investigation to understand a phenomena. Psychologist do not rely on abstract untested theories but rather on testing, retesting again and again all the assertions and hypothesis before accepting them as correct and true principles of psychology.
Even though the methods of psychology are different from those of physics, biology or chemistry, the basic scientific demands of observations, experimentation, test and retesting when formulating hypothesis and theories is applied in studies and research related to psychology.
Even though psychology sometimes begins with common sense, it is mostly based on observations and use of scientific methods where psychologists tests hypothesis which are speculations about how the world behaves.
Hypothesis comes from different places among them social cultural practices, social norms and common sense.
In psychology, a research program tests many hypothesis confirming some to be true and disproving others as false.
Psychology as a discipline has been developed over time by application of scientific methods from the time it emerged around 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychological laboratory at the university of Leipzig in Germany.
Characteristics of science
- Have formal methods which are systematic procedures used to collect data.
- Involves accumulation of facts and generalizations
- theories are used to organize observations.
- Should have ability to predict and control phenomena based on gathered documented information.
conclusion
Psychology meets most of the requirements to be a science. In psychology, there are thousands of empirical articles that shows observations of facts.Methods of psychology includes experiments, observations, data analysis, study of documented facts and formulation of hypothesis among other methods.
Related Topics and pages
- Introduction to social Psychology
- History of social Psychology
- Importance of studying Social Psychology
- Introduction to psychology
- Mathematics
- Elementary Physics