Psychology Essay: Psychology has been defined as the scientific study of human behaviour and experience. Describe and discuss how psychologists study behaviour and experience scientifically

Psychology has been defined as the scientific study of human behaviour and experience. Describe and discuss how psychologists study behaviour and experience scientifically

(10 marks)

4 A01 marks = describe / name the assumptions
6 A02 marks = criticise the assumptions

Note: the more assumptions you name, the more AO2 marks you can achieve by criticising.

Scientists formulate hypotheses. These are predictions about what will happen under certain conditions (A01). When researching behaviour all psychologists will have a hypothesis, and in this respect are scientific. Some psychologists carry out experiments to test a hypothesis (A01).

Science is also about control (A01): All extraneous variables need to be controlled in order to be able to establish cause (IV) and effect (DV).

Scientists develop methods of objective measurement. They do not base their conclusions on estimates or guesswork (A01). Psychology also measures behaviour by operationalising variables. Through using experiments to objectively measure behaviour psychology is able to obtain empirical evidence to support a theory rather than using an individuals personal opinion or common sense view (A01)

Science must also be objective (you cannot get any more A01 marks – the maximum is 5 AO1 marks). This means that all sources of bias are minimised so that personal or subjective ideas are eliminated. The pursuit of science implies that the facts will speak for themselves even if they turn out to be different from what the investigator hoped.

There is no easy answer to the question 'is psychology a science?’. But many approaches of psychology do meet the accepted requirements of the scientific method, whilst others appear to be more doubtful in this respect.

For example, the behaviourist approach is scientific due to their focus on objectivity and measurement of observable behaviour (A02), thus reducing personal bias influencing the interpretation of an event (A02). The cognitive approach also studies internal mental behaviour by using lab experiments. A good example of this are experiments of memory (A02).

In contrast the humanistic approach values private, subjective conscious experience and argues for the rejection of science (A02). Humanism believes that a person’s subjective experience of the world is an important and influential factor on their behaviour. Only by seeing the world from the individual’s point of view can we really understand why they act the way they do. This is what the humanistic approach aims to do. Humanism rejects science because experiments create artificial environments and therefore are not similar to real life, i.e. low ecological validity (A02). Humanism prefers rich qualitative data.