5 ms·

They classified the undergraduate psychology major as a "science"?

by auctiontheory 14y ago

guptaneil 14y ago
How else would you classify psychology?
- paganel 14y ago
  Not the OP, but I think for example that psychology "sins" a lot when it comes to "reproducibility" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproducibility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproducibility). Then again, I'm one who also thinks that the only true science is mathematics.
  - ArtB 14y ago
    > the only true science is mathematics Not to hate, but I hate it went "purists" restrict a words definition to the point that it is useless. Math is the only science that has no use, ever, for lab coats or experiments or physical objects and benefits people only in the most indirect ways. Really, math is -IMHO- closer to philosophy. It is about developing logical and consistent models, but in math they are just easier to verify their consistency.
  - lutusp 14y ago
    > ... I'm one who also thinks that the only true science is mathematics. I happen to agree philosophically, but I have been in a number of debates on this topic in which the empirical nature of science, and the requirement for perpetual falsifiability of scientific theories by new evidence, was used to argue that mathematics isn't really science as strictly defined. After due consideration, I have been forced to the conclusion that, if perpetual falsifiability and an empirical basis are required for science, then mathematics is in a category all its own. Having said that, I still regard mathematics as the purest "science": http://xkcd.com/435/ http://xkcd.com/435/
tedks 14y ago
Yes, they did: see this sentence in the article: >But science majors (including those studying biology, chemistry and psychology) judged him more harshly than non-science majors. If you think psychology is ascientific, then you're living in the psychology of about a century ago. Psychology has been incredibly rigorous since the 1920s, and by virtually any metric it's as hard a hard science as any other hard science.
- jquery 14y ago
  Just because a field sprinkles numbers around doesn't make it a hard science. By that definition, marketing research is a hard science. What is psychology's unifying theory? Biology has evolution, physics has the standard model. Psychology has, what? Please, do enlighten me.
  - ajb 14y ago
    A unifying theory is not a requirement for something to be a science. Physics was a science before the standard model.
    - jquery 14y ago
      You're mixing terms. Nobody is saying psychology doesn't use scientific methods. They are arguing it is not a hard science. The hard science version of psychology is called neuroscience. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_science http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_science Psychology gave up its efforts to become a hard science when it gave up trying to explain behavior from its roots in the brain, and moved into the realm of observing behavior and reporting correlations.
      - emini_guy 14y ago
        >Psychology gave up its efforts to become a hard science when it gave up trying to explain behavior from its roots in the brain, and moved into the realm of observing behavior and reporting correlations. Well, that's was astronomy was doing all the time before Newton. Does it mean it was not a hard science? Psychology is doing the best it can do. It may simply never be a hard science. It is not now to most people, myself included. I think it is not a hard science because the human nature is too complex to be investigated in a simple manner. Psychologists are aware of it and they refuse to use simplistic models. Neuroscience is much simpler. It studies the brain, not the human personality that can have many layers.

They classified the undergraduate psychology major as a "science"?

guptaneil 14y ago

How else would you classify psychology?

paganel 14y ago
Not the OP, but I think for example that psychology "sins" a lot when it comes to "reproducibility" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproducibility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproducibility). Then again, I'm one who also thinks that the only true science is mathematics.
- ArtB 14y ago
  > the only true science is mathematics Not to hate, but I hate it went "purists" restrict a words definition to the point that it is useless. Math is the only science that has no use, ever, for lab coats or experiments or physical objects and benefits people only in the most indirect ways. Really, math is -IMHO- closer to philosophy. It is about developing logical and consistent models, but in math they are just easier to verify their consistency.
- lutusp 14y ago
  > ... I'm one who also thinks that the only true science is mathematics. I happen to agree philosophically, but I have been in a number of debates on this topic in which the empirical nature of science, and the requirement for perpetual falsifiability of scientific theories by new evidence, was used to argue that mathematics isn't really science as strictly defined. After due consideration, I have been forced to the conclusion that, if perpetual falsifiability and an empirical basis are required for science, then mathematics is in a category all its own. Having said that, I still regard mathematics as the purest "science": http://xkcd.com/435/ http://xkcd.com/435/

tedks 14y ago

Yes, they did: see this sentence in the article: >But science majors (including those studying biology, chemistry and psychology) judged him more harshly than non-science majors. If you think psychology is ascientific, then you're living in the psychology of about a century ago. Psychology has been incredibly rigorous since the 1920s, and by virtually any metric it's as hard a hard science as any other hard science.

jquery 14y ago
Just because a field sprinkles numbers around doesn't make it a hard science. By that definition, marketing research is a hard science. What is psychology's unifying theory? Biology has evolution, physics has the standard model. Psychology has, what? Please, do enlighten me.
- ajb 14y ago
  A unifying theory is not a requirement for something to be a science. Physics was a science before the standard model.
  - jquery 14y ago
    You're mixing terms. Nobody is saying psychology doesn't use scientific methods. They are arguing it is not a hard science. The hard science version of psychology is called neuroscience. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_science http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_science Psychology gave up its efforts to become a hard science when it gave up trying to explain behavior from its roots in the brain, and moved into the realm of observing behavior and reporting correlations.
    - emini_guy 14y ago
      >Psychology gave up its efforts to become a hard science when it gave up trying to explain behavior from its roots in the brain, and moved into the realm of observing behavior and reporting correlations. Well, that's was astronomy was doing all the time before Newton. Does it mean it was not a hard science? Psychology is doing the best it can do. It may simply never be a hard science. It is not now to most people, myself included. I think it is not a hard science because the human nature is too complex to be investigated in a simple manner. Psychologists are aware of it and they refuse to use simplistic models. Neuroscience is much simpler. It studies the brain, not the human personality that can have many layers.