Live Life Team
Psychology is an applied academic science that involves a scientific study of the mental functions and behaviour of individuals. Such phenomena include perception, emotion, cognition, personality, and interpersonal relationships. It also applies to knowledge of various spheres of man’s activity and treatment of mental problems.
While psychologists attempt to understand the role of these functions, criticism and controversy arises. One common criticism is its ambiguity as a science. Thomas Kuhn proposed that psychology is in a pre dogmatic stage that lacks agreement of facts found in other mature sciences, like chemistry and physics. The truth is that the field only relies on soft research methods, such as questionnaires and surveys. Moreover, most critics believe that psychology is subjective. This is because of the incapacity of the psychologist to directly measure mental and behavioural processes such as emotion and thinking. Debates also focus on empirically oriented researchers and practitioners and on the nature of therapeutic effectiveness and strategies. These issues have convinced some to think that psychology is not as scientific as psychologists would like to have us think.
Another controversial topic concerns fringe clinical practises. Recent research and studies have shown that some mental health training programmes do not demonstrate significant value. Some say that there have been harmful treatments carried out by psychotherapists. These treatments include suggestive methods for memory recovery, facilitated communication designed for infantile autism, and energy therapies.
These controversial methods can only be eliminated through an improvement in evidence-based practise and treatment that will increase public confidence in the mental health professions and in psychology as a whole.
