Browse our collection of papers in
General Psychology

S/PS/215. Psychology and science: the possibility of charting progress

WORDS:

3000

DATE:

2010

PRICE:

39.99 GBP

The paper poses the question about whether progress is taking place in science and – in particular – psychology. It is easier to measure scientific advancement, argues the paper, but charting progress in psychology is more difficult – although philosophers suggest it should and must happen using a scientific method. The scientific method has been used since 1879, when William Wundt opened a laboratory and began (as is quoted in the 1962 study by Miller) to: ‘…train young philosophers to use the scientific method.' The research also argues that some psychological theories are sometimes just too vague to be falsified. In Freud's psychodynamic theory in 1900, for example, Freud believed that the unconscious mind consisted of an ego, a super-ego and an id – a claim that is hard to falsify. More recently, studies by Lachmann et al (1979) suggests that the progress of psychology is slow, and that the discipline of psychology may need to use different methods to those employed in the world of science.

KEYWORDS: Psychology, psychological theory,