Question: Why study science in Psychology?
Jennifer and Bethany have both recently declared Psychology as their majors. One evening as they are looking over their required courses, they start talking.
Jennifer: I don’t see why we have to learn statistics and research methods! I am never going to use them anyway. I want to be a counselor and I am just going to deal with each person as an individual. Science treats everyone as if they are interchangeable and totally predictable. In fact, I think people would be better counselors and teachers and social workers if they didn’t take research classes at all, because then they would treat everyone as individuals, not clones.
Bethany: People are a lot more predictable than you think. Psychologists have learned so much about human behavior in the last 100 years or so using the scientific method. I really believe that if you can figure out all of the factors that are affecting someone’s behavior, you can be pretty accurate in figuring out what they are going to do. I’ve decided that I want to be a researcher because I think I can help more people in the long run than you will as a therapist. As a researcher, I can develop programs that will help lots of people who suffer from the same problem. A therapist can only help one person at a time, and sometimes it takes years for a person to get better.
Reflection Questions:
- How do Jennifer and Bethany differ in their understanding of what people are like? Who do you agree with more and why?
- What is ethically troubling about taking Jennifer’s position to the extreme? What would happen if therapists received no training in the scientific study of human behavior?
- What is ethically troubling about taking Bethany’s position to the extreme? What is the problem with assuming that if you can figure out all the variables (genes, environment, etc.) that you can perfectly predict people’s behavior?