I begin nearly every course be asking, "What is psychology." Until students
have had me for at least two courses, they skip over any mention of science. I
also put it repeatedly on exams. Some students never get it. (This is even
true for graduate students.)
When I was interviewing for jobs, the chair of one psychology department that I
visited mentioned that, "psychology isn't really a science." Maybe it was meant
to be a challenge, but I don't think so.
- Mike
"Dr. Kristina Lewis" wrote:
> To provide another take on this issue.....
> I teach History of Psychology to our senior psychology majors--it is
> required as a "capstone" class. At the beginning of the semester we talk
> about what it means to say that psychology is a science, and we talk about
> their conceptions of science and why they might or might not believe that
> psych is a science. We read several articles on philosophy of science,
> talked about determinism, the mind/body problem, and then did a semester of
> history during which I continuously pointed out how psychology worked to
> establish itself as an empirical fied.
>
> Well, guess what? Yesterday, last class, I brought up the question again.
> Most of the students believe that psychology isn't "really a science"
> because "humans are too variable and you can't ever really understand what
> causes behavior" and "humans have too many choices".
--
**********************************************************************
* Mike Scoles * [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Department of Psychology * voice: (501) 450-5418 *
* University of Central Arkansas * fax: (501) 450-5424 *
* Conway, AR 72035-0001 * *
************ http://www.coe.uca.edu/psych/mscoles.htm ****************
