Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology

For a long time in history, studies of history of psychology have been done in three distinct ways. These domains were as follows: consciousness, psyche, behavior and mental life but every case stood on its own. Psychology was in this case the knowledge domain. Moreover, psychology was composed of various accounts. There was also the case of the society that was composed of views of the world or culture or industrialization. Although the history between these disciplines is not viewed sometimes, there are social aspects that are studied on how they are related to psychology. The often asked question is the relationship between the theories of psychology and its application to human life for instance, individual life, mental life and subjectivity. Presently, efforts by writers to separate the three categories have seen light. Psychology itself cannot exist without a society which supports all its facts. Moreover, psychological object cannot be taken as independent, given, discovered but that which is discovered and comes before knowledge. Psychology can hence be seen in two perspectives: as a discipline and as a subject of human. A conclusion can be made that psychology exists in a domain that is constructed. This is contrary to science domain where truth is constructed.

Introduction

Science employs an approach of empiricism. This approach states that our senses are the only place from which knowledge originates. This is in contrary to knowledge view that exists that it could be acquired purely by logical argument and reasoning. Hence empiricism views knowledge to be based on experience. Empiricism through gain of knowledge via experience came to be an approach of science and influenced greatly chemistry and physics d...

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... Scientific thought on the other hand, goes ahead to justify every observation by mere experimentation. With time it is found out that there an implication that the outcome of the experiments has on judgment because many arguments can be correct till proven right. Another example is on statistics where it is implicated in relationships.

Works Cited

McLeod, S. A. (2008). Simply Psychology; Psychology as a Science

G. Bachelard (1984).The New Scientific Spirit, tr. Arthur Goldhammer, Boston, Beacon Press

K. Danziger (1990).Constructing the Subject, Cambridge: Cambridge U. P

K. Gergen(1985). The social constructionist movement in modern psychology, American Psychologist

Hacking (1990).The Taming of Chance, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

P. Heelas and A. Lock (1981).Indigenous Psychologies: The Anthropology of the Self, London, Academic Press