By:

Dr Wong Huey Siew

Today, everyone talks about facts and evidence with a scientific approach in their daily lives. In fact, many people did raise a very fundamental question particularly they curiously wanted to know whether psychology is a science and how scientific they are in describing and explaining human behaviour?

In order to answer these doubts, Firstly, let us get a simple definition of psychology. Basically, psychology is both an applied and academic field that studies the human mind and behavior. Furthermore, psychology can be defined as the scientific study of man and animals behaviour by using various scientific methodology. They used observation, survey, case study, experimental method, field work and so on to gather data and facts about their subjects. This demonstrated that psychologists used scientific method and tools to analyse, interpret and describe human and animal behaviour with facts without any bias and their own judgment.

Besides, the most significant characteristic feature of the above methods is that the data obtained through any one of these methods are verifiable and can be duplicated by other who wants to check its authenticity. Again, it tells us that the studies and finding in the field of psychology are reliable and valid. Perhaps, we could read those finding in the well-known published journal. So, these scientific methods are similar in principle to those used in other fields such as sciences, engineering , education, business, environmental etc. the only different is they  adapted such methodology and tools to the study of man and animal behaviour  which is the subject matter of psychology.

In conclusion, psychology always is a science just like others field of studies., as such, psychology can be applied to a variety of issues that could impact the health and daily life of many people including performance enhancement, self-help, ergonomics, motivation, productivity, teaching and learning, work place and much more area.