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What Is a Real Science

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Submitted By sumsum20
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Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and behavior. It uses the scientific method to address the fundamental questions about the human mind and behavior (Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D. T., & Wegner, D. M. 2). However, in recent years there has been controversy as to whether psychology constitutes as a real science. What is science? One can define science as the knowledge or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observations (Merriam-Webster). Psychology uses experiments and observations to analyze data and statistics to form hypothesis and predictions. People can benefit from psychology because, without it, people would not understand the problems of child abuse, autism, and mental disorders, which has an impact on society. However, in an article by Alex B. Berezow, he argued that psychology is not a science because “it doesn’t meet the five basic requirements for a field to be considered scientifically rigorous: clearly defined terminology, quantifiability, highly controlled experimental conditions, reproducibility and, finally, predictability and testability” ("Why Psychology isn’t Science"). Psychology is a science because it employs the scientific method to analyze the human mind and behavior and correlates it to the function of society. The components of the scientific method are theories, hypothesizes, predictions, experiments, and results.
Psychologists make observations about the function of society, which uses the scientific method to prove these observations. The theoretical framework of the scientific method is divided into theories, hypothesis, and predictions. A theory explains how and why a phenomenon occurs (Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D. T., & Wegner, D. M. 65). Following the theory, the hypothesis is a set of predictions about phenomena. A prediction is the forecast of how data will come out in a

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