What is the Classification of Psychology?

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Psychology is known as the study of the mind and behavior through researching, observing, and interpreting. There is a variety of different fields in psychology abnormal psychology, clinical psychology, counseling psychology, developmental psychology, forensic psychology, personality psychology, and social psychology. According to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Occupational Outlook Handbook psychology will continue to grow twelve percent which is seen as average in the next ten years (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014-15). It is important that the categorization of psychology be understood by individuals because of the continued trend of individuals studying, learning, and working in the psychology field over the next ten years. However, if individuals do not have an understanding of psychology’s classification being supported either as a science or not being supported as a science, it is likely to result in feelings of confusion. The definition of science, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is defined as, “knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation” also known as the state of knowing (Merriam-Webster). There is supporting evidence that suggests psychology be classified as a science and other evidence that does not show supporting evidence that psychology is classified as a science. The purpose of this Literature Review on identifying the classification of psychology is to assess the current research sources on the following categories; support that psychology is a science, support that psychology is not a science, current problems within psychology, and lastly to identify gaps in the current research.
The first category that will ...

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... Scientific Thinking as Safeguards against Human Error. Journal Of School Psychology, 50(1), 7-36. www.elsevier.com/locate/jschpsyc
Piaget, J., & Kamii, C. (1978). What is psychology?. American Psychologist, 33(7), 648-652. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.33.7.648
Polišenská, V. A. (2011). EFPA’s support for psychology as a science. European Psychologist, 16(2), 118-120. doi:10.1027/1016-9040/a000089
Postman, N. (1992). Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
Science, The definition of. (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/science
Skinner, B. F. (1990). Can psychology be a science of mind?. American Psychologist, 45(11), 1206-1210. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.45.11.1206
Snoeyenbos, M. H., & Putney, R. (1980). Psychology and science. The American Journal Of Psychology, 93(4), 579-592. doi:10.2307/1422365

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