psychology as a science

• science

  systematic observation, identification, description, empirical investigation and theoretical explanation of phenomena
• pseudo science

  is defined as scientifically testable ideas that are taken on faith, even if tested and shown to be false
• psych as a science

  • is psychology a science? psych is study of human behaviour and experience.
  • it is relevant whether psych is a science bc psychologists want to place themselves alongside physical scientists rather than ppl like journalists
• applications of psych as a science

  science and pseudoscience

  • science= way of collecting knowledge abt world we live in that uses objective, verifiable methods and builds up coherent theories
  • pseudoscience= uses techniques of science but does not produce verifiable evidence psedo science can be identified bc it makes claims that cant be verified, makes claims not connected to prev research, doesn't submit data for review by other scientists
  • psych isnt free of pseudoscience
• links to bandura

  bandura provides some good evidence but there is disagreement on what evidence is telling us
• links to freud

  criticism of freud is he doesnt come up with testable hypothesis and so we cant ever scientifically refute this theory-- many see freuds work as not scientific
• simerlarties and differences

  links to determinism bc science aims to discover how behaviour is determined by identified causes

  also linked to reductionism bc complex systems have to be reduced to individual variables for us to test cause and effect

  also linked to usefulness as science enables us to produce verifiable evidience which can then be trusted and then acted upon
• strengths and weaknesses

  strength of scientific method are that it challenges superstition and magic and allows us to develop knowledge that can be tested and developed

  science tends towards reductionist explanations