Is psychology a science

Question 1

Psychology is a science?

Answer 1

It is a research based subject with investigation at it’s core

Psychology does use the scientific method. It carries out genuine experiments, using many controls

It uses theories, which generate hypotheses, which are tested empirically

Question 2

Psyhcology is not a science

Answer 2

Subject nature is humans – difficult to be objective, also affected by social desirability, demand characteristics, experimenter/observer bias

Much of psychology is unobservable e.g the mind, motivation, emotion

There is no unifying theory of psychology (A paradigm)

Question 3

What makes psychology scientific?

Answer 3

Cause and effect

Control

Falsification

Induction and deduction

Objectivity

Quantifiable methods

Replicability

Standardisation

Question 4

What makes psychology not a science?

Answer 4

Subjectivity

Lack of control

Inability to falsify a theory/ idea

Question 5

Cause and Effect

Answer 5

To establish a casual relationship by setting a IV to get a DV

e. g Piliavin= Whether the victim is drunk or disabled
e. g Milgram does not have a IV

Question 6

Control

Answer 6

A highly controlled study means there is less chance of extraneous variable affecting our results. Standardisation

e. g Biological studies – Sperry – images flashed at 1/10th of a sec. Each face appeared for 500ms, followed by a 1-s interstimulus interval. (exp 1)
e. g Piliavin is a field experiment

Question 7

Falsifiability

Answer 7

Theories should be able to be disproved. If a theory can be disproved it clearly does not work and alternatively a theory can be proved it does work.
e.g Freud’s theory, is that they lack falsifiability.