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Objective 1: Describe the problems psychology must face as a young science.

To first describe the problems that psychology faces a young science, I believe that we have to have clear and concise definitions of both. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines psychology as the science or study of the mind and behavior. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary also defines science as the state of knowing. I believe that this is where the problems arise. eople associate the word science with legitimate and

complete truths! they associate science with unbreakable laws, like that of gravity, but the actual definition is the state of knowing. When you mi" psychology, the study of the unpredictable mind and ever changing human behavior, with science, the state of knowing, it is hard to know beyond a doubt what is happening mentally within a person. #ne of the biggest problems psychology faces as a young science is that we e"pect psychology to hold all the answers to people$s reasoning and behavior, but people %ust are not predictable. &s a whole, society cannot predict when a seemingly healthy individual will kill '( innocent people in a movie theater, we %ust can$t. )o we try to understand why they did it psychologically, and we try to determine if they were in the right mental state, but that cannot be determined by %ust one e"periment, like in psychics. This takes weeks, months, maybe even years for e"perts to evaluate the mental stability of an unpredictable person. &nother problem that psychology faces as young science is that it is not as respected or reliable as a science like &rithmetic and *eometry, where things can be proven without a doubt. In *eometry we have the ythagorean Theorem for all right triangles. If & s+uared , - s+uared does not e+ual . s+uared, it is not a right triangle, or the operator made a mistake, because the ythagorean works every single time without

fail.

sychology however, does not have theorems or laws that fit every single

individual, and that goes back to one of my previous statements, that people are unpredictable. The respectability falls in to +uestion because of the age of psychology. The first formal psychological research laboratory was established only '/0 years ago in '123 by Wilhelm Wundt in *ermany. In '/0 we have made leaps and bounds in the research and knowledge of our minds, but we still have a long way to go if we are to make theorems and laws that fit every single person on this earth.

http455www.merriam-webster.com5dictionary5psychology http455www.merriam-webster.com5dictionary5science The links above are the resources for the technical definitions of psychology and science. http455www.huffingtonpost.com5(6'/5675(05%ames-holmes-trial-delayed8n8/93999(.html :ere I found an article about the ;ames :olmes trial, the man who killed the innocent movie goers in &urora, .#. I used this article to show the unpredictability of the human race and how psychology as a science cannot possibly predict the behavior of others. http455en.wikipedia.org5wiki5Wilhelm8Wundt I used the link article above for more specific information about the early psychologist Wilhelm Wundt and how he created the first psychology laboratory.

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