Is Psychology a real science?

[mistermack]

I don't know the answer to the question by the way.

I've always suspected that psychology is a lot of woo, but I'm not at all informed on the subject.
If it is science, does it actually achieve anything, apart from shortened sentences for criminals, so that they can get out and commit more crimes?
Can psychologists do anything that common sense can't achieve?

[Azathoth]

Psychologists like to think so but no

[Clinton Huxley]

It's no more a science than economics.

[Feck]

Yes it is a science . Try Wiki as a start if you actually want some answers .Otherwise feel free to make uninformed generalisations

[Clinton Huxley]

Aye, the Wiki section on systemic bias is particularly interesting...

To be fair though, "Psychology" embraces many fields, from the empirical to the woo-zy, that you probably need to qualify what branch of psychology you are talking about.

[mistermack]

Yes it is a science . Try Wiki as a start if you actually want some answers .Otherwise feel free to make uninformed generalisations

Thanks, I will. It's what chatrooms are all about, it's what I like about this one.

In fact, uninformed generalisations sums up the history of medicine.

I'm really interested in the psychology of humour.
Anybody know the prevailing theory?

[MrJonno]

It's no more a science than economics.

Economics is a branch of psychology!

Problem with psychology is due to ethical and practical problems its extremely difficult to undertake accurate experiments with decent controls, a petri dish may be a poor simulation of what goes on inside a living organism but its nowhere near as poor as trying to get get psychological labs to emulate the real world.

You simply can't keep all variables constant bar the single one you are studying.

Psychology is very good at coming up with scientific hypotheses but it is very poor at proving/disproving then.

Human beings if you have enough of them may be studied via statistics but like electrons you can't predict the behaviour of individual ones

[Atheist-Lite]

It's woo. Like economics it is great at predicting the past. Uses a lot of statistics to pretend it is science freindly. Woo-wooh-wooh. Any of the others here tell you its a science and poitn to a wiki they have done the hard slog of disemboweling the crdibility for me. Woo-wooh-wooh.

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/8 ... lison.php/

[FBM]

Aye, the Wiki section on systemic bias is particularly interesting...

To be fair though, "Psychology" embraces many fields, from the empirical to the woo-zy, that you probably need to qualify what branch of psychology you are talking about.

Nail. Head. Direct hit. Psychoanalysis is pretty damned dubious at best, but there's a lot of neuropsychology that is shedding a lot of light on a lot of things.

[Exi5tentialist]

Is psychology a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws?

Yes of course it is. So is voodoo.

[Rum]

It attempts to be empirical. It does repeatable experiments to test hypotheses. It analyses statistics. So yes - more or less.

Clinical psychology however seems less 'scientific' and more akin to psychoanalysis which in my view is 90% woo.

[Atheist-Lite]

Is psychology a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws?

Yes of course it is. So is voodoo.

There is a key difference. Whereas Voodoo uses powerful drugs to turn people into living zombies as a means of social control you'll find Pyschology uses powerful drugs to turn people into living zombies as a means of social control.

[Rum]

Is psychology a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws?

Yes of course it is. So is voodoo.

There is a key difference. Whereas Voodoo uses powerful drugs to turn people into living zombies as a means of social control you'll find Pyschology uses powerful drugs to turn people into living zombies as a means of social control.

Actually psychologists can't prescribe drugs.

[Exi5tentialist]

Pyschology uses powerful drugs to turn people into living zombies as a means of social control.

You're thinking of psychiatry

[Atheist-Lite]

Is psychology a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws?

Yes of course it is. So is voodoo.

There is a key difference. Whereas Voodoo uses powerful drugs to turn people into living zombies as a means of social control you'll find Pyschology uses powerful drugs to turn people into living zombies as a means of social control.

Actually psychologists can't prescribe drugs.

That's just being pedantic.