Is Psychology A Science?

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which
either confirm or nullify a theory.

During the mid-19th century, scholars (although at that time probably
termed philosophers) wanted to study human nature with the aim of applying
the scientific method to observe, record, and treat human behavior that was
deemed as unnatural. They believed that if people could be studied in a
scientific manner, there would be a greater accuracy in understanding
present behavior, in predicting future behavior, and, most controversially,
in altering behavior through scientific intervention.

There are many areas of psychology, each attempting to explain behavior
from slightly different perspectives;

Social psychology is concerned with the effects of social situations on
human behavior.
Personality theorists study individual behavior.
Comparative psychologists study animal behaviors across the range of
species
Physiological psychologists are concerned with the biological basis of
behavior.
Developmental ...

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Its method of data collection
rely heavily on interpreting discussion, dreams and fantasies, actions,
case studies and a limited amount of experimentation.

The behaviorist perspective believes that behavior is learned and selected
by environmental consequences. Its method of data collection relies
heavily on experimentation conducted in the scientific laboratory where the
factors studied can be controlled; or it may take place in a real life
setting where more natural behavior is studied and far more variables exist.


The cognitive perspective believes that behavior is a result of information
processing, storage in the brain, transformation and the retrieval of
information. The ...

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