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Old 08-31-2006, 10:33 PM   #1
talisman
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Default Psychology is a science.

Rather than clutter up gerbi's thread, I'm making this one. There was some small debate where reach kept claiming it was only a "pseudoscience" and I want to clarify.

First, science must be defined.

--Science is a process. It is a method by which people can record observations about phenomena they observe in such a way that some other person can read that record and can test the validity of the original observations by repeating the conditions the original experimenter outlined.

I'm going to assume that everyone is familiar with the scientific method, which, to me, is essentially half of what science is. The other half is reporting everything about your experiment in such a way that the experiment is replicable by another experimented who might doubt your results or who might want to expand on them, but first wishes to confirm them.

--Now, psychology.

Experiments in psychology are the same as experiments in any field. There are control groups, experimental groups, factors, effects, measurements of statistical significance, reporting of materials, procedures, and results. This makes it a science. Period.

--A pseudoscience is any kind of study that fails in respect to one or any of the criteria for a science. In a pseudoscience, there may be no control group, there might not be any report of procedures, whatever. It seems weird for me to even try to describe a pseudoscience because I don't think there are any pseudosciences... just claims made that are pseudoscientific. Arguments are more likely to be pseudoscientific, not areas of research.

--The difference between psychology and biology, for example, is only between what is studied. The way in which they are both studied is identical (I mean overall, not procedurally).

--Science is not concerned with the results of experiments, nor how they are interpreted. Science is merely the process by which experiments are carried out and reported. A science's "validity" is measured not by how accurately the results are attributed to cause and effect relationships, or how well an experiment answers a question, but only by whether or not the process was adhered to.
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Old 09-1-2006, 08:30 PM   #2
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Default Re: Psychology is a science.

I agree with you Talisman. However, I do understand people who don't call it science though, but only because often psychological research doesn't follow experimental design specifically. These need an experiment, where there's an experimental group and a control group. We both agree with this. However, much of pschology actually doesn't do that. For instance, correlational research. However, correlational research still follows the scientific method, uses statistics, and takes into account that it IS correlational and causality must not be assumed, but its just not the experimental method. And non-experimental methods for psychology is absolutely necessary. People aren't guinea pigs. Furthermore, there's the issue that what is learned in a study isn't what's going to happen in the real world, because of the artificial environment. Non-experimental methods tend to have much more ecological/real world validity than experimental ones.
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Old 09-1-2006, 08:32 PM   #3
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Default Re: Psychology is a science.

pop psychology is a pseudoscience

folk psychology is a pseudoscience

actual psychology is a science

what is so hard to get about this that you needed to make a thread
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Old 09-1-2006, 08:52 PM   #4
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Default Re: Psychology is a science.

ask reach.

also... the majority of research in psychology is done with standard experimental design. Humans can be guinea pigs as long as they give consent.
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Old 09-1-2006, 11:04 PM   #5
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Default Re: Psychology is a science.

I can't believe you actually made a thread about this.


'kept claiming it was a pseudoscience' XD mostly for the f ucking hell of it, not because I seriously think it isn't science.

I love psychology and have studied it well. I also however like poking fun at certain aspects of it.

I pretty much agree with all points in this thread.


Cavernio pretty much beat on the head anything I would say.
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Old 09-2-2006, 06:48 PM   #6
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Default Re: Psychology is a science.

Whack!
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Old 09-2-2006, 06:59 PM   #7
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Default Re: Psychology is a science.

I hardly think the majority of psychology is standard experimental design, but we don't have the info to back that up as for or against anyways.
But there's lots of research which could be done which no one in their right mind is going to even consider moral even given consent. For instance, any research which wants to look at any potential negative long-term environmental effects. "Mrs. Smith? I was wondering if you could help us out with a very important experiment. Yes, you'll be financially compensated, handsomly too. We'd like to put you and your family into lead-paint filled house for 10 years so we can examine how much of an ill effect it'll have on the intelligence of little Stewy here..."
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