The natural inclination to understand phenomena in scientific ways is an innately human tendency (Haas, 2011). This desire to seek scientific explanations, particularly to explain empirical phenomena, is pervasive not only in scientific fields but also various disciplines. An exorbitant amount of research aims to investigate the impact that scientific phenomena have on social and cultural contexts, among others. Moreover, with continued scientific advancements, this desire is driven by explanatory and predictive power for events. This desire for power is essential for understanding the nature of the world, specifically the objective principles underlying it, and the actions placed upon these occurrences, namely human behavior. The study of
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Other scientific disciplines do not directly approach the study of human behavior, which makes the discipline of psychology novel, consequently driving its contention. Moreover, there are questions raised that pertain to whether psychology also has applications in hard sciences, which would drive it closer toward recognition as a science; whether the discipline alone can accommodate scientific inquiries; or whether psychology is not a science at all. Thus, the objective of this paper is to investigate the basis for psychology and whether historical and contemporary accounts have led to the inception of this field as a …show more content…
Pertinent to this issue is the demarcation problem; once a problem that only concerned philosophers, the demarcation problem seeks to distinguish science from pseudoscience (Pigliucci & Boudry, 2013). Subsequently, this places great skepticism around the scientific basis of psychology, as evidenced throughout its history. Whether psychology can be considered a science has been a fundamental debate since its inception. The movement of psychology toward a science is dependent on the definition of science itself. With scientific advances continually presenting, consensus on the definition of science adapts to new ideologies. Unless there is clear consensus on this definition, psychology’s stance as a scientific discipline will have no traction in arguments fighting for its divorce as a recognized science. According to most literature, scientific inquiries in their most natural of ideals are approached by the disciplines of physics, chemistry, and biology (Haas,
Other scientific disciplines do not directly approach the study of human behavior, which makes the discipline of psychology novel, consequently driving its contention. Moreover, there are questions raised that pertain to whether psychology also has applications in hard sciences, which would drive it closer toward recognition as a science; whether the discipline alone can accommodate scientific inquiries; or whether psychology is not a science at all. Thus, the objective of this paper is to investigate the basis for psychology and whether historical and contemporary accounts have led to the inception of this field as a …show more content…
Pertinent to this issue is the demarcation problem; once a problem that only concerned philosophers, the demarcation problem seeks to distinguish science from pseudoscience (Pigliucci & Boudry, 2013). Subsequently, this places great skepticism around the scientific basis of psychology, as evidenced throughout its history. Whether psychology can be considered a science has been a fundamental debate since its inception. The movement of psychology toward a science is dependent on the definition of science itself. With scientific advances continually presenting, consensus on the definition of science adapts to new ideologies. Unless there is clear consensus on this definition, psychology’s stance as a scientific discipline will have no traction in arguments fighting for its divorce as a recognized science. According to most literature, scientific inquiries in their most natural of ideals are approached by the disciplines of physics, chemistry, and biology (Haas,