Discuss the advantages of the use of the scientific method in psychology

 Psychology is also falsifiable. Pavlov proved the theory of classical conditioning to be true when he managed to train dogs to salivate to a bell without the stimulus of food. Selye G.A.S.  Physically proves that stress can cause pshyical illness. He found that when a stressor is introduced, the adrenocortocotrophic hormone is released, leading to the an adrenaline rush induced by the resale of cortisol. Persistence of the stressor can lead to internal exhaustion and even hypertension and stomach ulcers. Brain scans can also identify tumors on the frontal lobe to diagnose mental illness such as schizophrenia. The fact that these things can be physically proven mean that psychology is scientific and results from research can be appropriately applied to create treatments for humans such as psychosurgery and drug medication. However, Freudian theories of the psychosexual stages and tripartal personality can’t be proven as we can’t see or measure such things.

  Like science, we can also replicate research in psychology. BLM research into biological preparedness could easily be replicated with the same or different participants to check reliability of results, by simply re-gathering participants and re distributing the questionnaire. This means psychological research can be quick and easy to replicate in order to check the reliability/validity of results. Psychology is objective: these questionnaires got concise data that could not be skewed by any form of observer bias, increasing the accuracy of the results. However, some would say psychology is not replicable, as natural experiments like when Becca introduced television to Figi to see its effect on eating disorders cannot be re-done as she observed one-off reactions from the participants.

Psychology is scientific in how it is objective and free from bias, meaning research is easy to replicate and has increased reliability. Kohens rat experiment objectively found a link between the virus given to them and tumours. Obviously there can be no bias or demand characteristics in such an experiment as a rat cannot fake a tumour, or be aware of what’s going on. This is an advantage as results are far more accurate and applicable to real life.

Overall, the advantage of having scientific research in psychology is that it generally means people are more likely to trust it as science is seen as reliable. It also means researchers can apply results to drug treatments and psychosurgery to treat mental illness. Increased validity and reliability can be ensured as psychology uses methodological pluralism is used – psychology has varied methods of measuring behavior. However, many people would argue science isn’t appropriate to psychology as humans are unpredictable and immeasurable, unlike scientific elements like atoms and time. All humans have different biological and environmental backgrounds, and the varied approaches to psychology mean that it is not reductionist, and there are many different justifications for human behaviour.