Okay, so I’ve been digging into this whole “is psychology a social science or humanities” thing, and let me tell you, it’s been a bit of a rabbit hole. I started off pretty clueless, just thinking, “Well, it’s psychology… it’s about people, right?”
First, I jumped onto Google, just to get a basic feel for things. I typed in “psychology social science or humanities” and… wow. Lots of different opinions. Lots of articles. Lots of big words I didn’t quite get at first.
I started skimming through some of the top results. Some websites were clearly saying it’s a social science, focusing on things like research methods, experiments, and data. You know, the whole “scientific” side of studying the mind and behavior.
- I saw a lot of mentions of “empirical evidence” and “statistical analysis”.
- It talked about things like surveys and controlled experiments.
Then, other sites were arguing for the humanities side. They were talking about things like understanding human experience, interpreting meaning, and exploring different perspectives. More like philosophy or literature, in a way.
- This side focused more on things like case studies and individual experiences.
- I noticed more emphasis on interpretation and critical thinking.
So, I was getting more confused, not less! It seemed like psychology was sitting right on the fence between these two big categories.
I decided I needed to organize my thoughts. I grabbed a piece of paper and drew a line down the middle. On one side, I wrote “Social Science” and on the other, “Humanities.” Then, I started jotting down the arguments and evidence for each side, trying to make sense of it all.
I went back to those articles and started pulling out key phrases and ideas. I highlighted things that seemed important, like the different research methods used or the different philosophical approaches.
After a while, my paper was a mess of notes, but it was starting to make more sense. I realized that psychology uses both scientific methods and humanistic approaches. It’s like, it needs both to really understand people.
My Conclusion (For Now!)
It looks like psychology has a foot in both * borrows tools and ideas from both the social sciences and the humanities. Maybe it is best to think of it as a bridge between the two, or maybe something that has own category? I’m still not 100% sure, but I’m definitely closer to understanding the bigger picture.
I plan to keep reading and learning about this. Maybe I’ll even check out some books on the philosophy of science. It’s a surprisingly interesting topic, even if it’s a bit confusing at times!
