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Ethics in psychology
Essays on the history of psychology
Essays on the history of psychology
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There are a number of important issues that have been debated throughout the history of Psychology. This essay will consider two key issues concerning the way Psychology is conducted and understood. These issues include the scientific status of Psychology and the ethical dilemma of how far should psychologists go in the pursuit of knowledge? To decide whether psychology is a science, we first have to define a science. Science builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions of the universe. Science uses a particular methodology, which is objective and yields quantitative data. Data gathering uses a standardized approach and is gathered in controlled conditions. Science generates theories, which lead to clear and testable hypotheses. Findings should produce further research leading to a greater understanding of the subject matter. Science should also be falsifiable, a concept introduced by Popper in 1969. Psychology is widely recognised as the study of mental processes and behaviour, and fulfills many conditions of a science. Psychology establishes a body of knowledge and provides textbooks and journals based on explanations and predictions. Psychology is also an evolving science that provides ongoing research and experiments on both humans and animals, in similar fashion to Biology. Some of the most famous experiments that have contributed to Psychology include Pavlov's research with dogs, Milgram's studies of obedience, and Harlow's work with rhesus monkeys. Research in most areas of psychology is conducted in accord with the standards of the scientific method. Psychology researchers gather hypotheses from data, using qualitative or quantitative methods (or both). Generally in scientific re... ... middle of paper ... ...mely unethical. However, it could be argued that Watson and Rayners study is very valuable to psychology and is one of the most famous experiments into behaviourism. The experiment showed that fears and phobias could be learned and classical conditioning is a method that can be used to remove fears and anxieties. In conclusion, it is vital that ethical guidelines are followed as far as possible when conducting psychological research. Although psychologists have a responsibility to protect participants they also have an obligation to pursue and share knowledge that will benefit humanity. In some cases, the breach of ethical standards has been necessary to advance the understanding of humans and human behaviour. Overall, psychologists must evaluate the potential benefits against the potential costs of the research and decide whether the means justifies the ends.
The World of Psychology. (2002). A Pearson Education Company. Boston, MA: Samuel Wood & Ellen Green Wood p. 593
American Psychological Association (APA). (2002). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. American Psychologist, 57, 1060-1073.
The study of psychology began as a theoretical subject a branch of ancient philosophy, and later as a part of biological sciences and physiology. However, over the years, it has grown into a rigorous science and a separate discipline, with its own sets of guidance and experimental techniques. This paper aims to study the various stages that the science of psychology passed through to reach its contemporary status, and their effects on its development. It begins with an overview of the historical and philosophical basis of psychology, discusses the development of the various schools of thought, and highlights their effects on contemporary personal and professional decision-making.
Psychology can be broadly defined as the scientific and systematic study of people’s behavior and mental processes.
An important part of psychological research is the ethical factor. There is always a moral responsibility to protect research participants from harm when conducting experiments, but there weren’t always rules to protect them. Many famous experiments are known for changing the ethical rules and considerations of psychological research, at the sociocultural level of analysis. Some of the most famous and controversial studies are the Zimbardo Stanford Prisoner experiment and the Milgram shock experiment.
The term psychology has many meanings to different people, even to those who work within the psychological field. The word psychology derives from two Greek roots; 'psyche' refers to 'soul' or 'mind' and logo refers to 'the study of'. A more update definition of the word psychology can be found from Atkinson, et al (1991) “The scientific study of behaviours and mental processes.” However on Google Definitions the definition of psychology is “the mental characteristics and attitudes of a person” [accessed 16 September 2011], which gives somewhat of a contradiction. In this assignment I will be outlining and evaluating four key psychological perspectives. The psychological perspectives I have chosen are the behavioural approach, biological approach, cognitive approach and the psychodynamic approach.
The article, “Everyone Knows Psychology Is Not a Real Science” by Christopher Ferguson is one that is written and further explained based on the work of a writer Lilienfeld in an article in the American Psychologist journal in 2012. It explores the public thoughtfulness of psychology, the misconceptions of psychology and generally discusses the issues associated with the science of psychology. The article argues that in order to reduce the controversial issues hovering around psychology, better methods should be devised in order to enhance the clarity of psychology as a science and further make changes to the rigidity of some its guiding theories. One thing that is worthy of note in this article is that psychology as a field and discipline
Psychology is a social science that aims to study the mind and the behaviors of humans. It aims to understand what drives humans to act the way they do. It differs from sociology and anthropology in that it takes accounts the individual rather than society as a whole.
Maureen H. Miner recommends in his article that any training in ethics will be judged by the quality of ethical choices made by those who complete it. If psychologists are to be recognized as professionals who are committed to best practice, then we should take ethical training very seriously. (Miner, 2005)
The British Psychological Society states that ‘Psychology is the scientific study of people, the mind and behaviour’ (BPS). In this essay I will be discussing what is actually meant by this and whether psychology fits into both the traditional views of a science, as well as more contemporary perspectives. It is widely suggested that Psychology is a “coalition of specialities” meaning it is multi-disciplinary (Hewstone, Fincham and Foster 2005, page 4). I will therefore examine whether it could be considered wrong to think that all parts of the discipline should neatly fit into one view of a scientific approach.
In this essay I am looking at where Psychology as a discipline has come from and what affects these early ideas have had on psychology today, Psychology as a whole has stemmed from a number of different areas of study from Physics to Biology,
Like any other science, psychology is concerned with theories and data. Psychologists use a wide range of research methods and techniques that allow them to gather and make sense of the data that they produce. The methods that psychologists use to research and analyse the experience and behaviours of individuals or groups are called psychological research methods. This essay will be investigating and analysing three research methods to include; experimental, observational and surveys, also, reflecting on their strengths and weaknesses of each in addition to their usefulness in the psychology field.
Psychology is the investigation of the mind and how it processes and directs our thoughts, actions and conceptions. However, in 1879 Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany. Nevertheless, the origins of psychology go all the way back thousands of years starting with the early Greeks. This foundation is closely connected to biology and philosophy; and especially the subfields of physiology which is the study of the roles of living things and epistemology, which is the study of comprehension and how we understand what we have learned. The connection to physiology and epistemology is often viewed as psychology, which is the hybrid offspring of those two fields of investigation.
I have always had an interest in psychology and the idea of evaluating people and their actions. That being said, I have never thought of it as a science. There are examples of people who fool someone in this profession into believing that have some type of disorder, or, that they are basically normal, when the opposite is true. If it were a true science, would you not be able to test them against a constant and know this?
O’Connell, D. C., & Kowal, S. (2009). The evolution of modern psychology: A critical, forward-looking perspective on some pioneers. Journal of Psychology, 217, 73-78. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com