is psychology a science??

hi, was just wondering is any knew where to get a modal answer for this debates questions as im having truonle learning it

Reply 1

Zarathustra

dixies-girl

hi, was just wondering is any knew where to get a modal answer for this debates questions as im having truonle learning it

The scientific approach questions will vary for each exam paper.

If you go on the AQA website, you can download the mark schemes for past papers though - they won't provide a model answer exactly, but will tell you what should go in one.

ZarathustraX

Reply 2

saiyamanadingdongbanana

I could write you a model answer if you wanted. :smile:

Whether psychology is a science yea?

Reply 3

dixies-girl

saiyamana

I could write you a model answer if you wanted. :smile:

Whether psychology is a science yea?

lol yeh that would be great if you could!

Reply 4

saiyamanadingdongbanana

Is psychology a science?

Psychology is the study of behaviour, and how people react in certain situations. It uses scientific approaches to attain answers to important questions, making use of things such as controls, repetition and scientific methods to conduct research. But the fact that psychology has yet to produce hard facts which could support some ideas makes psychology a rather 'soft science'. Most ideas in psychology are never proved successfully, for example the great Nature- Nurture debate which plagues the psychologist community. Although it can be argued that sciences such as Physics have similar traits, theories of the universe are produced, and discoveries are usually predicted prior to being discovered. However, physics, biology and chemistry have a single dominating framework in which ideas can be built upon. Psychology seems to be at its infancy, because ideas can be interpreted in multiple ways- without disproving any of them. A classic example of this is The discovery of the atom by Rutherford- ideas have been built upon and have been generally accepted within the scientific community (not many Thompson supporters i imagine :rolleyes:

). But in psychological investigations, such as Gould (who tried to produce a foundation for psychology- a single qualitative idea which would form the basis of modern psychology) who construced the early IQ test, can be disproved and argued from a multitude of angles, the IQ tests can be explained by cultural bias. This is common in psychological investigations, in which psychologists continue to struggle to find hard facts on how and why people behave in the way they do. Psychology continues to provide quantitative data which can be interpreted in many ways- only until psychology is given a framework can it become a 'hard' science.

Hope that helps ya a bit :smile:

Reply 5

tis_me_lord

It's a social science. Yes... that'll do.

Reply 6

saiyamanadingdongbanana

http://www.arachnoid.com/psychology/

heavy reading but that pretty much explains what psychology is :smile:

Reply 7

ChemistBoy

Psychology is not a science - it is far too subjective. It may employ scientific method to a point, but only to a point.

Reply 8

dixies-girl

can anyone think of any lab expts which to some extent are ecologically valid.

Reply 9

saiyamanadingdongbanana

dixies-girl

can anyone think of any lab expts which to some extent are ecologically valid.

how about the simulated prison study by Zimbardo, in which participants were given the role of a prisoner or guard.

There was a considerable amount of Experimental realism in this experiment, as most participants felt that the experiment was real. When they were spoken to privately, 90% of the talk was about the prison, and prisoners referred to each other by number

However, the study is lacking mundane realism because there is a difference between a simulated prison and a real one!

[ Experimental Realism + Mundane Realism = Ecological Validity ]

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Reply 10

Chocolatefudge

Psychology is a pre-science- it follows many of the principles of science, for example experimental methods and positivism but not all of its perspectives are truly scientific. With paradigm shifts in the future, it may become more and more scientific as, for example, the biological approach merges with the cognitive approach

Reply 11

carcharodon

only some uni prospectuses count it as a science. in fact geography is more associated as a science than psychology at universities (the a-level of course).
im sure psych gets hard at uni with the brain and everything

Reply 12

blondebombshell

Well as far as my tutors at uni go they say psychology is a science. More so modern psychology than past behavioural stuff. I hope it is a science seeing as I will be getting a Batchelor of Sceince degree in psychology! :redface: