Scientific Debate Flashcards
Intro
- it’s a debate whether psychology can be considered a science
- whilst some would argue that psychology can’t be a science due to the changing nature of science which requires there to be stricter features (being nomothetic and deterministic) which psychology lacks, others would argue that psychology has also adapted to have more features of a science .
- therefore this debate will discuss the extent to which psychology can have an established scientific status
Paragraph 1 - lacks paradigm
S-one way in which psychology arguably lacks a paradigm is the way in which different approaches explain behaviour
- paradigms are assumptions or ways of thinking which are commonly accepted by members of a discipline
E- for example the behaviourist approach argues that psychology is caused by the environment, whilst the cognitive approach argues that behaviour is caused by internal mental processes.
E- Kuhn argued that psychology is a pre-science as it lacks a paradigm and there is much debate as to what the subject is and its theoretical matter
- furthermore there are many ways in which behaviour is studied in psychology like Raine used PET scans to study behaviour as he believed that behaviour is caused by physiological differences whilst Freud used case studies as he argued behaviour is caused by experiences in childhood
W- therefore this is why many would argue that psychology cannot be considered a science and it is difficult to establish a scientific status in psychology with it lacking key features of a science
Paragraph 2- changing nature of science
S- the changing nature of psychology means that psychology can meet the changing nature of a science
E- for example, psychology has developed from there being no scientific elements at all, with Wundt and Freud having no hypothesis or scientific ways to study behaviour, to it then developing to use more scientific methods with Pavlov and Watson with lab studies, but there being no hypothesis
E- this suggests that that psychology has gone through many paradigm shifts, which is another of Kuhn elements of a science
W- therefore whilst psychology did not used to meet the demands of the changing nature of psychology,it can now be considered to have a scientific status
Paragraph 3 - idiographic
S- the nature of psychology is idiographic
Idiographic approaches emphasise the uniqueness of individuals
E- one example of this is dream analysis; this is where the client will tell the therapist the manifest content (what they saw) and then the therapist will turn this into the latent content (the real meaning) to give the clients an insight into their unconscious mind which should then be cathartic to the client
E- this is subjective method of treating behaviour as the interpretation made by the clients are subjective, holistic and therefore idiographic
C- however it can be argued that psychology being idiographic is actually beneficial to psychology because it means that clients can be treated as individuals
W- therefore whilst there’s some benefits of psychology being idiographic, it is clear that this does not allow it to meet the changing nature of science which demands science to be nomothetic and thus, psychology cannot have an established scientific status
Paragraph 4- deterministic
S- How does some benefits to psychology due to its deterministic.
E- for example we could use Balby‘s findings about maternal deprivation which suggested that maternal deprivation caused the behaviour in the 44 children and then society could adapt to reduce maternal deprivation to reduce the amount of thieves in society
E- this therefore lead to a safer society.
- furthermore rains research could be used to know that there are certain differences in the brain activity in his NGRI participants.
- this means that we could develop treatments and surgery to change this differing activity in the brain reducing the amount of murderers in society.
C- however it could be argued that this is an ethical to change specific areas of the brain in people who have certain brain abnormalities just because of a brain scan
W- therefore although psychology being classed as a science due to the deterministic nature may be unethical it is clear that if psychology is classed as a science this brings benefits to society and this is why many would consider psychology as living up to the changing nature of science
Paragraph 5- scientific racism
S- the changing nature of science genuinely means that more quantitive data would be collected and this could harm society.
- quantitive data is deemed as scientific and society is much more likely to consider scientific research as fact but this could lead to scientific racism
-Scientific racism is the use of scientific research to justified pre-judicial attitudes against certain ethnicities
E- for example Morton claimed that white people have bigger skulls thus bigger brains and intend they are more intelligent
E- if this is taken has being scientific and thus accepted then this could disadvantage people in society
W- therefore if psychology has to meet the demand of the changing nature of science then this could lead to their being harm in society and this is why many would argue that psychology should not have a scientific status
Conclusion
Overall, after looking at all the evidence provided they clear arguments for different sides of this argument
- whilst many would argue that the changing nature of science has made it difficult to establish psychology as a science due to much of psychology being ideographic lacking features of a science and they’re being costs of psychology meeting the changing nature of science standards it is clear that the arguments against the statement outweighs the arguments first due to the development of psychology having more scientific features as well as there being benefits to society from psychology being deterministic and the biological approach being nomothetic .
