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Common Sense

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This essay will examine the differences between psychology and common sense. It will also discuss the obstacles and drawbacks that primary experience and common sense beliefs can have on the epistemological advancement of any experimental science. The paper will start with a brief history of psychology and then discuss the different perspectives and approaches within the field. Giving examples throughout and briefly touching on the pioneers in the development of psychology, this essay will argue that the use of systematic and objective methods of observation and experimentation in psychology make it much more than just 'common sense'.
The bathroom floor is somewhat colder than the bedroom carpet. Most people would agree with this statement and pass it off as just 'common sense'. But what if a thermometer showed that the bathroom floor was actually the same temperature as the bedroom carpet, and the real reason that the tiled floor in the bathroom 'felt' colder than the bedroom carpet was because the carpet is a better thermal insulator than the ceramic tile? Therefore feet lose heat to the floor more slowly on the carpet than on the tile floor, and consequently the cold receptors in the feet's skin are not stimulated to the same extent (Refinetti, 1992). This example, although not specifically a psychological one, shows that the element of primary experience and common sense beliefs in most humans can prove to be an obstacle in the development of any experimental science.
The first formal laboratory for psychological research was founded in 1879 by Wilhelm Wundt. Widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology" (Teo, 2005; 40) and placed first in the list of most outstanding psychologists carried out by Korn et al in 1991, Wundt established psychology as a separate field of study with its own unique questions and methods. Thirty years later in 1910,

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