emergence is psychology as a science

• Early behaviourists rejected introspection

  1900s
• Behaviourist scientific approach dominated psychology

  1930s
• Cognitive approach used scientific procedures to study mental processes

  1950s
• Biological approach introduced technological advances

  1990s
• John B. Watson (1913): 'Introspection was subjective, in that it varied from person to person'
• Behaviourist approach


  Scientific psychology should only study phenomena that can be observed and measured
• B.F. Skinner (1953): 'Brought the language and rigour of the natural sciences into psychology'
• Behaviourists' focus on learning, and the use of carefully controlled lab studies, would dominate psychology for the next few decades</b>
• Following the cognitive revolution of the 1960s, the study of mental processes was seen as legitimate within psychology
• Although mental processes remain 'private', cognitive psychologists are able to make inferences about how these work on the basis of tests conducted in a controlled environment (lab)
• Biological psychologists have taken advantage of recent advances in technology, including recording brain activity, using scanning techniques such as fMRI and EEG, and advanced genetic research
• Strengths of psychology


  • Research in modern psychology can claim to be scientific
  • Psychology has the same aims as the natural sciences-to describe, understand, predict and control our world
  • The learning approaches, cognitive approach and biological approach all rely on the use of scientific methods-for example, lab studies to investigate theories in a controlled and unbiased way
  • Throughout the 20th century and beyond, psychology has established itself as a scientific discipline
• Limitations of psychology


  • Not all approaches use objective methods
  • The humanistic approach is anti-scientific and does not attempt to formulate general laws of behaviour
  • The psychodynamic approach makes use of the case study method which is open to bias and does not attempt to gather a representative sample
  • Many claim that a scientific approach to the study of human thought and experience is not possible, nor is it desirable, as there are important differences between the subject matter of psychology and the natural sciences