Is Psychology a Science free essay sample

Is psychology a science? Discuss using evidence from the five approaches. To answer this question I feel it is important to understand the definitions of psychology and science. I will start with definitions of the terms psychology and science and will briefly review the methods of psychology. I will outline the behaviourist approach, the psychoanalytical approach, the cognitive approach, the humanistic approach and the biological approach. In order to confirm whether psychology can fulfil the definition of science I will outline the five approaches and use evidence from the approaches to support my findings.There are numerous definitions for the word psychology, Benson (1998: 5) describes the discipline of psychology as ‘the scientific study of the mind and behaviour of humans and animals’ whereas Hayes (1998: 1) identifies psychology as ‘the study of the mind, the study of behaviour, the study of human information processing’, and the study of ‘why human beings act as they do’. We will write a custom essay sample on Is Psychology a Science or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The two descriptions highlight how definitions differ although it is widely agreed that psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour.As with psychology there a various definitions for the term science, however they all appear to be based on creating theories or explanations which rely on evidence. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia (2005) includes a number of definitions, firstly stating that science is the ‘study of the physical world and its manifestations, by using observation and experiment’, secondly describing science as ‘something studied or performed methodically’ and finally as ‘any activity that is the object of careful study or that is carried out according to a developed method’.