controlled studies

• Why must there be controlled studies in psychology for it to be a science?

  Psychology must carry out controlled studies, which are easy to replicate by others. Research should try to eradicate extraneous variables and results should be consistent over time.
• One argument that supports the fact that psychology is a science is that scientific research is desirable
• Early psychologists in the 19th century aimed to create a science of psychology to verify knowledge
• Falsifiability


  The hallmark of science according to Popper (1969), rather than generalisation from positive instances of findings
• Conducting psychological research


  1. Create hypotheses to test

  2. Aim to falsify them

  3. Collect evidence in controlled environments

  4. Make more objective conclusions
• Several different studies have been conducted under controlled environments and results have been consistent over time
• This supports the notion that psychology is a science
• Moreover,

  • The biological, behaviourist and cognitive approaches all believe in the principle that psychology should be studied under controlled conditions and should be replicable over time.

  • Therefore supporting the view that these approaches in psychology all take a scientific approach and meet this criteria of conducting studies under controlled conditions.
• Elizabeth Loftus's work on eyewitness testimony


  Has proven to be invaluable
• People's recall of events is flawed as memory is complex and subject to change based on misleading questions and emotional states of individuals
• Loftus's research


  • Conducted using controlled studies
  • Replicable over time
  • Supports the view that psychology is scientific and meets this criteria
• Loftus's research has been invaluable to our understanding of the potential issues with EWT and memory
• Cognitive interview


  Aims to maintain accuracy of Eyewitness accounts
• Human behaviour is complex and difficult to measure accurately under artificial settings
• The scientific method might be important for psychology in terms of validating results and showing that they are consistent
• In studying human behaviour, other less quantitative methods should be used
• Psychology is not a science as human behaviour is very complex and so using objective methods to measure it, is not always appropriate