I have always had an interest in psychology and the idea of evaluating people and their actions. That being said, I have never thought of it as a science. There are examples of people who fool someone in this profession into believing that have some type of disorder, or, that they are basically normal, when the opposite is true. If it were a true science, would you not be able to test them against a constant and know this?
Here is one recent example of someone fooling four different mental health professionals, including a psychologist. The case is Karl Pierson, the incident Littleton Colorado School shooting:
“In his diary, Pierson also cited “elementary school teasing” and described himself as a “psychopath with a superiority complex” who
As Fodor states in his 1997 papers conclusion one must not only attack the generalizations but also the evidence, predictions and then the generalizations don’t actually yield true results. As he simply states, “You have to actually do the science,” (Fodor, 1997. p.162). Once you do this you can clearly see that mental states can be multiply realized in so far that results are logically confirmed. Through examples and explicating why Kim’s conclusion is a fallacy I have shown that Fodor’s conclusion that psychology is a science is valid.
Science is a word that carries with it many meanings - knowledge, truth, a process of examination. But when it comes to setting a clear definition of the term, difficulties arise. Certainly physics is science, and theology isn't. But many disciplines are less intuitively dichotomized, such as the fields of psychology, history, ethics, and many others. Are these sciences?
Psychology has a number of different facets. As the science of psychology evolves more information comes into play and psychologist devices various schools of thought. Psychology being the study of the human mind means it is easier to find differences than consistencies. For example, in other areas of science one can perform case studies and when it comes to physiological issues some things are consistent certain “normal” cells are going to react the same way regardless of the person. if said cells do not do the same thing then experts know that something is wrong. However with psychology this is not always the case because from a mental standpoint people are different and then when one factors in life that makes a difference as well. Therefore
Psychology is a social science that aims to study the mind and the behaviors of humans. It aims to understand what drives humans to act the way they do. It differs from sociology and anthropology in that it takes accounts the individual rather than society as a whole.
Science is supposed, to tell the truth, but because humans are the ones performing the experiments sometimes there are flaws. For instance, Andre Wakefield in
This essay examines the advantages and disadvantages of using a method primarily for gathering research on human subjects that can be examined for later use. It will give a basic outline of the methods of investigation, their uses and their suitability. I will also look at the scientific method as a whole and examine the criticisms of this method using the writings of Hume and Popper.
Looking back, every culture has their own set of myths and legends. While many of these stories differentiate depending on the society, from which they came, there are also many similarities between them. One of the largest similarities is the character, known as the trickster; a trickster is someone who cannot be fully defined, but who also has many traits which allow people to identify him as a trickster. The trickster character can be seen as essential to myth because they are what drive the story; without the trickster, the plot could cease to exist, or dramatically change. A good, modern day, example of the trickster character would be Shawn Spencer from the television show Psych.
Psychology, the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, has been giving us information regarding human behavior and decision-making since the late 1800’s. The field itself is one of the most controversial in all of science, especially when it comes to the morality behind psychologist’s experiments. Morality is the distinction between what is considered to be right or wrong behavior. The famous psychology experiment known as the Stanford Prison Experiment is notorious for being considered an “immoral” trial; however, it was accepted by society because it was conducted in the name of science. This raises one question: should science trump morality even if it means putting some people at risk?
In order to be considered a science, Psychology must consequently adhere to using a scientific method. If this were, as usual, taken to mean the accumulation of knowledge through systematic observation or experimentation, Psychology would likely not have an issue in being recognised, however traditional views of a science mean most areas, with the exception of Behaviourism, would not be considered a science in their own right.
Psychology can be described as the science which is dedicated to the mind, brain and behaviour. This science envelops all aspects of experiences likewise thoughts. It is also a studious discipline and a social science seeking to grasp individuals and groups through specific researches. As this science has existed for centuries, it has had many important participant in its development. All participant were influential, however, some were in my opinion much more influential as they contributed particularly to the development of psychology. Wilhelm Wundt, Sigmund Freud and William James impacted psychology in a way that differs from the other psychologists.
“Studying psychology is fun because you are always looking for the same things I think a writer should be looking for, which is the story behind the story.” – Christ Cleave. While this might be a romanticized view of psychology, I find the quote by Mr. Cleave accurate due to the high levels of observation and research associated with this field of study. There are more than a dozen specialized areas of psychology and include working with animals and people, studying behaviors, criminals, work environments. Though there are several intriguing areas of psychology, the two that interest me most are experimental psychology and forensic psychology.
I never noticed how much psychology could be incorporated into everyday life. But really, any decision or action you take is related to it. I have personally been extremely interested in social psychology: why people do things because of social norms, what people do in order to look socially acceptable, etc. Others topics I also find interesting are sensation and perception; how past experiences can influence how you perceive the things around you, states of consciousness; how things that have happened in your day can be transferred into a mash of events in your dreams, motivation and emotion; what makes a person do something or what makes a person start or stop procrastination, and lastly: personality; what characteristics and traits stand out the most in a person, what makes a person who they are.
Psychology as the article states is “it is a broad discipline, essentially spanning subject matter from biology to sociology. Psychologists have doctoral degrees. They study the intersection of two critical relationships: one between brain function and behavior, and another between the environment and behavior. As scientists, psychologists follow scientific methods, using careful observation, experimentation and analysis. But psychologists also need to be creative in the way they apply scientific findings.”(APA, 2014) How psychology developed into science is when Wilhelm Maximillian Wundt whom a German physician philosopher, physiologist and professor and also the founder of modern psychology illustrated psychology as a science apart from biology and philosophy. He was the first person to ever call himself a psychologist, and he was well recognized as the father of experimental psychology. The goal of science is to create reasonable explanation (theories) to describe existence. Theories that rely not on feelings or passions, but rather on evidence. However, Newton did just that, his work in physics had a philosophical influence on psychology. He first developed a scientific method that consisted of observation and the formulation that were designed to predict outcomes, events and the subsequent testing of hypotheses through further observation. The scientific method worked towards the discovery of a more general explanatory laws. These principles still remain vital to the scientific method that is used in psychology. Furthermore, some psychological perspectives that explain human behavior are the behaviorist perspective, humanism and psychodynamic perspective. The behaviorist perspective proposes two main processes where ...
Psychology can be defined as the study behind human behavior, how individuals perceive the world around them, and how they react to these perceptions. Psychology considers itself a science. However, there are many who disagree with this notion. Often called a fictitious science or even a cult, psychologists have frequently had to defend their scientific community. Despite being a comparably new science, skepticism of whether or not psychology is an actual science has existed even before its establishment as an independent discipline. In fact, Immanuel Kant, a highly recognized 18th century philosopher, denied the validity of such a science. He contended that the study of the human mind could not become a proper natural science because events of the mind are not quantifiable (i.e. weighed or measured). Therefore, its data cannot be described mathematically, nor can it be truly manipulated experimentally. With arguments similar to those of Kant, many modern critics of psychology offer a lack of tangibility and quantifiability as indicative of its failure to be a true science.
Perception is how people interpret something they see or hear. These ideas are believed easily because it is what they want to see or hear. The reality is never what people think of first. They see something and that's what they recognize it to be, even if it is wrong. Some things can be deceiving, but is perceived as something great. The perception within social media is that people are all perfect and famous, but in reality it is something that deceives and should not be trusted.