Psychology is a
science that can help us understand the drivers of human behavior(one
more tool to help you examine a life, if you agree with Plato) but
like any other science it should be taken with a grain of salt, after
all didn't the greatest scientific minds at one time think the
Newtonian physics were absolute and concise?
Psychology is a
young multi faceted science with many inconsistencies and gray areas
waiting to be colored in. A science with multiple varied answers to
the same questions. Like the way a wise tech enthusiast waits for the
hiccups of a new consumer technology to be worked on, before he/she
goes out and splurge a pile of cash, it is this writers opinion that
its best to wait for psychology to mature as a science, for its
varied facets to blend into one clear surface before accepting all of
it as truth.
nature vs
nurture; a debate in psychology between biological psychologists and
behavioral psychologists is a good example of how different schools
of psychology are now converging to form a complete picture.
In the past,
biological psychologists who believe behavior is attributed to
underlying biological processes and factors, would explain the case of
the fairer sex being comparatively more empathetic to biological
processes/phenomena such as structural differences between the male
and female brain, genetic characteristics passed on from prehistoric
times, hormonal differences between the sexes, so on and so forth.
Where as a behavioral psychologist would attribute the same to
factors such as social learning; where a women learned to be more
empathetic by observing how other women behave in their childhood and
operant conditioning; where empathetic behavior in women were
reinforced and disdain behavior punished, habituating a more
empathetic world view. Of recent times psychologists have come to
understand that rather than nature vs nurture it is nature and
nurture where biological and behavioral factors work hand in hand to
explain the full picture. In this case social learning and operant
conditioning working to establish empathetic behavior heightened by
predispositions(found to be a more attractive behavior from an
evolutionary point of view and so passed on genetically).
Aside its inconsistencies, psychology is a powerful science with implications to all aspects of our life and so it is something we should all know a little more of.
