Psychology and science

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Is psychology a science or a perspective?

-- Taneisha Feilin (melt_ta@yahoo.com), October 26, 2004

Answers

I'd say both. Psychology is such a diverse field that some specialties are highly scientific, others less so. You can make your own decision as you measure research and theories by what you determine to be the critical criteria for "science." Psychology has its roots in a range of disciplines that include philosophy, physiology, agriculture, astronomy, philosophical theology, physics, etc. each of which has different epistelologies and research methods. But psychology's scientific status is a separate question from whether it is a perspective. Some would argue, for example, that psychology is a perspective because it operates with different root metaphors than those of other disciplines. James Hillman, in Suicide and the Soul (Harper), makes an interesting case for how the psychologist approaches the question differently than would the lawyer, theologian, sociologist, or doctor--each of them taking perspectives different from the others.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@cox.net), October 27, 2004.

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