Okay, so I’ve been digging into this whole “is psychology a humanities or social science” thing, and man, it’s a rabbit hole! I started out thinking, “Psychology? People? Must be humanities, right?” Wrong!
My Initial (Flawed) Thinking
I figured humanities are all about, like, philosophy, literature, art – you know, the touchy-feely stuff. And psychology deals with feelings and thoughts, so… connection! I even started picturing myself as some kind of mind-reading philosopher-type.
The Research Deep Dive
Then I hit the books (well, the internet, mostly). First thing I did was just Google it. Seriously, “is psychology humanities or social science.” The results were all over the place! Some websites said humanities, some said social science, some said BOTH. My head was spinning.
So, I started looking at what actual universities do. I checked out a bunch of course catalogs, you know, the kind you flip through when you’re trying to decide what to major in. Turns out, most universities put psychology in their social science departments.
- I looked at like, five or six different university websites. Big ones, small ones, the whole deal.
- Most had a “College of Social Sciences” or something similar.
- And guess what was listed under that? Yep, Psychology.
Why Social Science Makes Sense (Even Though It’s Confusing)
Then I started thinking about how psychologists actually do their work. It’s not just sitting around pondering the meaning of life (though I bet some do that, too). They do experiments! They collect data! They use statistics! It’s all very… scientific.
They’re trying to understand human behavior in a systematic way, like how sociologists study society or how economists study the economy. They’re looking for patterns, making predictions, and testing hypotheses. That’s way more “science” than “humanities” if you ask me.
My “Aha!” Moment
I realized that my initial idea about humanities being all “touchy-feely” was way too simplistic. Humanities are about understanding human culture and expression, but they don’t usually use the scientific method. Psychology, even though it deals with feelings and thoughts, uses a scientific approach to understand them.
Conclusion (For Now)
So, after all this digging, I’m pretty firmly in the “psychology is a social science” camp. It’s about understanding human behavior using scientific methods, even if those humans are sometimes messy and unpredictable. Of course, there’s probably still room for debate, but for now, I’m calling it: Psychology = Social Science. Case closed (maybe?).
