Question 1 (1000-1200 words)
Is psychology a science or an art, and what, if anything, does your answer to this question imply about the coherence of the discipline as a whole? Illustrate your answer, where appropriate, by reference to the Gay Muslims DVD and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT).
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. To determine whether psychology is a science or an art, we must first establish what psychology, science and art are defined as. The Oxford Dictionary of English refers to: Psychology as being the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, Science as being the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment and Art as being subjects of study primarily concerned with human culture (as contrasted with scientific or technical subjects)
It can be argued that psychology is a science or an art. I believe psychology to be both. The two facets are also evident on an educational level, as several universities offer the psychology degree under both the art and science faculties. In my opinion, psychology is a science in the sense that psychologists conduct experiments and other empirical studies in order to acquire and expand rigourous knowledge of the topic. I also believe it is an art in the sense that applied, especially clinically, psychology is not carried out by the mechanical application of technique, but requires experience, judgement, and intuition on the part of the practitioner. Certainly, psychology tends to work with numbers and attempts, in one sense or the other, to formalise its discipline, but this is where the similarity between science and psychology stops.
Typical psychological research either uses some variant of the factorial design (i.e., anova-type), or some kind of correlational analysis (i.e.,...