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

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Science itself is only a science because it is has control, predictability, replicabilty (being able to replicate the experiment), objectivity, and be falsifiable (where a theory can be proved correct). It is also reductionist, deterministic, empirical (gains information through direct obseration) and nomoethic.  Psychology cannot be classed as a science because it doesn’t contain the same characteristics.

A disadvantage of the scientific method in relation to psychology is that its reductionist; something that psychology it never reduces behaviour down to one factor, as it looks at human beings as a whole, taking into consideration individuals have different biological and environmental backgrounds. If it was scientific it would mean that only one of the many different approaches (Biological, Cognitive etc) would be valid. For example, Bandura’s Bobo Doll Study proved that observing an aggressive model is enough for children to be aggressive themselves.  If psychology was reductionist, the usefulness of this study is decreased, as the biological (aggressiveness is in our genes) or cognitive influences (we can control whether we are aggressive or not) on the child’s aggressive behaviour aren’t taken into account.

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 Another disadvantage of psychology as a science is that most of its theories aren’t falsifiable. If we can’t prove theories to be correct, how do we know psychological treatments that are based on them will be successful? We can’t see, or even consciously feel Freud’s theories that our subconscious mind consists of the ID, EGO and SUPEREGO (different parts of our personality that can be activated to either make us act more moralistic, or more aggressive), therefore how can it be proven that they exist? It is the same with the Freudian theory of the psychosexual stages. There is ...

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