Psychology

Don’t panic but psychology isn’t always a science by vaughanbell

Every so often, the 'is psychology a science?' debatesparks up again, at which point, I start to weep. It's one of the most misplaced, misfiring scientific discussions you can have and probably not for the reasons you think.

To understand why it keeps coming around you need to understand something about the politics of studying things.

Science has higher status in academia and industry than the humanities so suggesting to a practitioner that "they're not a scientist" can be the equivalent of suggesting "you're not as valuable as you make out".

This plays in out in two ways: less scientific disciplines get less funding and people start being knobs at parties. The second is clearly more serious./.../