Origins Of Psychology- Psych As A Science AO3

Question 1

✅ Why can psychology be considered a scientific discipline?

Answer 1

Psychology aligns with the natural sciences in its aims to describe, understand, predict, and control behaviour. Scientific approaches like the learning, cognitive, and biological perspectives rely on controlled lab experiments, ensuring objectivity and replicability. These methods have led to practical applications, such as the development of therapies (e.g., CBT for depression), enhancing the discipline’s credibility.

Question 2

✅ What are the benefits of using a scientific approach in psychology?

Answer 2

The scientific approach has led to the development of evidence-based treatments (e.g., CBT), improved understanding of mental disorders, and advancements in educational techniques. It also enhances psychology’s credibility by placing it on an equal footing with the natural sciences.

Question 3

❌ Why is psychology sometimes not considered fully scientific?

Answer 3

Not all psychological approaches are scientific. The humanistic approach focuses on subjective experiences rather than objective measures, and the psychodynamic approach relies on case studies, which are often based on non-representative samples. Additionally, demand characteristics can influence human participants, affecting the validity of findings. Psychology’s subject matter (human thoughts and feelings) can be difficult to measure scientifically.

Question 4

❌ How does Karl Popper’s concept of falsifiability challenge psychology’s status as a science?

Answer 4

Popper claimed that for a theory to be scientific, it must be falsifiable — capable of being tested and proven wrong. Many psychological concepts (e.g., the Id, Ego, and Superego from Freud’s theory) are not directly observable and cannot be tested in this way, making them difficult to falsify. This limits psychology’s scientific credibility.