Psychology as a Science
"To what extent can Psychology be regarded as a scientific subject?"
There are many views on both sides of this debate, some which believe/support that Psychology should be classed as a science and that it is indeed a science as well as others which believe/support the factor that Psychology is not a science. This is a debate that has been going on since Psychology itself first came about and is still debated today, but is Psychology really a Science and should it be classified as one? There is no definite answer to this question either way as to answer it accurately would involve covering and analysing all the possible variables and arguments to come to a conclusion, which would take a long time to say the least.
Personally I think Psychology to be a Science although not in the same category as sciences like Biology, Chemistry etc but under the category of 'Social Sciences' like Sociology etc, the reason I think this is because Psychology deals with a lot of its theories and studies scientifically i.e. an idea(s) about the world that can be proven objectively. An example of a part of Psychology that does this is the behaviourist approach which uses experiments to prove its theories etc, although some aspects of Psychology e.g. the Psychoanalytic assumption of the unconscious mind can not be proven in a scientific and objective manner. This is why I'd class Psychology as a 'Social Science' as it deals with both social issues that may need subjective methods to 'prove' them as well as scientific factors e.g. genetics etc.
Although the view I have is just one of many, and as Psychology covers many different aspects in many different ways it is difficult to determine whether or not Psychology is a Science or not, e.g. it may depend on the subject matter in that some aspects/topics that are discussed in Psychology need a subjective approach to them where as others need an objective one, one example for this is human emotions, which would need a subjective approach to it for the factor that no human being is the same and most human beings react to situations differently to others where as things like depression and schizophrenia may need a more scientific and objective approach to them, e.g. the biological aspects of them, which can be tested in an objective manner. Another factor that would need to be considered is the type of perspective that is being used to 'prove' the theory and/or study, for example perspectives like that of the Psychoanalytic and the Humanistic would need subjective methods to support their views as they primarily deal with the thoughts and feelings of the individual, i.e. a case study may be used as a research method, where as the Behaviourist perspective would usually need experiments (usually done on animals) to set out to 'prove' their theories/studies.
As well as the two factors I have already mentioned there are quite a few more, these include the intended use of the findings, e.g. will they be used to help in a therapy session or to suggest how a child learns, whether there is a lack of evidence for the particular theory/study, e.g. the cognitive approach, i.e. mind processes and the unconscious mind, including the Id, Ego and Superego etc, whether there are too many explanations for a certain area, e.g. the causes for an illness like depression or schizophrenia, as well as the factor that people are not constant which is why there may be a variation in the results found, this could be a reason for why a subjective method may be used as all human beings are different, i.e. their emotions, which can change etc. As a result of the many variables surrounding the question of "To what extent can Psychology be regarded as a scientific subject?" it is left to individual interpretation and it is unlikely that a definite answer will ever be settled upon because of peoples different opinions/view points.
