Argumentative Essay: Is Psychology A Science?

Psychology can be defined as the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes (Gleitman, Gross & Reisberg, 2010). But does this actually mean that psychology is a science? There are many arguments for and against psychology being classified as a science or not. Berezow (2012) thinks that psychology does not follow the scientific method which is a method of evaluating empirical information. The five requirements of a science are scientific language, measurable, under controlled conditions, can be replicated, how predictable the results are and the testing carried out.

The aim of science is to ensure a unified approach. For example, biology would focus on Darwin’s theory of evolution; chemistry would look at the molecular bonding theory

In the beginning of the 20th century, a group of philosophers and scientists known as ‘The Vienna Circle’ attempted to answer the question of what is a science. Popper (1957) proposed that falsifiability was neither a problem of meaningfulness or significance, nor a problem of truth or acceptability, but a problem of drawing a line between the statements and whether they had a scientific basis or not. He called this the ‘problem of demarcation’ and that falsifiability was the solution to the problem because in order to be ranked as scientific, statements must be capable of conflicting with possible or conceivable observations. Hume (1748) rejected the assumption that we must directly observe and then make deductions and inductions as he thought it was not possible to make general assumptions when we look at some observations. For example, you may have never seen a swan with feathers any colour but white, but that does not mean that there is not one out there

Freud's approach focuses on the unconscious and how it influences and control humans. The idea was by Freud that all individuals are born with the Id, Ego and Super-Ego and learning how to manage these through childhood experiences. Most researchers consider the psychodynamic approach as absurd and irrelevant. But while there is a lack of scientific data in this approach is difficult to say that the work of Freud is irrelevant because of the impact it has had on the field (Westen, 1998).

The behavioural approach came to light in 1913 when John Watson introduced it. He believed that there was insufficient empirical data found in psychodynamic theories Freud thus completely focus is on measurable behaviour and observational - slightly more scientific approach. He claimed that everyone is born as a clean slate and learn from personal experiences and environment. This approach examines the behaviour through classical conditioning or operant conditioning. (Skinner, 1953).

In the late 50s became the cognitive approach to force the introduction of information technology to the public. This approach focuses on the mediation between the stimuli and cognitive behaviour. This approach sees the brain processes such as hardware within the computer, claiming that we encode, store and retrieve information in the