Essay on Psychology as a Science
DEFINITIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology has been defined in different ways.Some people have defined psychology as an art.Other people have defined psychology as a science.Many text books define psychology as the science of mind and behavior.Psychology involves the study of human nature and/or behavior.Different opinions come from different perspectives.
Eric Pettifor at GIGANTOPITHECUS defines psychology as "an art which presents itself as science".
H.D.Hamm Ph.D.,who authored and maintains a site for Northern Michigan University,defines psychology as the "scientific study of the behavior of humans and animals".
Tom Bolling at the University of …show more content…
This blurring is a problem in mainstream medicine as well as psychology,but it has a more severe form in psychology and psychiatry.It is more severe mostly because of the above ethical limitations,which preclude formal,strict scientific study on human subjects.
As a result,ordinary clinical therapeutic treatments are actually a mixture of the three items listed above–research,diagnosis and therapy.If the treatment is routine and uneventful,it is clinical therapy,which most people realize is entirely ineffectual in any case.
Present-day Human Psychology
One might think the dismal history of psychology and the recent revolution in psychoactive drugs might cause more than a few psychologists to wonder whether their field means anything at all.But the absence of a scientific foundation for psychology means that,like religion,it can prevail in the face of overwhelming evidence that it has no fixed,testable content.
The Architecture of Science
Many psychologists