Scope of Psychology - Natural Science or Social Science

Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Sociology, and Psychology, are amongst the most important sciences on planet Earth. Based on their field of study these branches of science are broadly categorised as Natural and Social sciences. At first glance one can tell that Sociology is categorised as a Social Science and subjects like Physics and Chemistry are categorised under the Physical science category of Natural Sciences, whilst Biology is categorised under the Life Science category of Natural Sciences.

To keep this essay as relevant as possible I shall only be focussing on the Life Science division of Natural Sciences.

Like Botany and Zoology, Biology studies living organisms such as plants, animals and several microorganisms. On the contrary, being a Social Science, Sociology studies the working, functioning and the behaviour of society as a whole. So what about Psychology? Is it a Social Science or a Life Science. To get a clear idea we must first define Psychology. Psychology is the study of behaviour and mind, embracing all aspects of conscious and unconscious experience as well as thought.

To my utter disappointment, simply defining psychology will not resolve our dilemma, but it does give a clear idea of things. Psychology as a science is interested in what people think, what they feel and how they behave, the subject studies everything from the human brain to consciousness, memory and mental health ,whilst studying the same, as a subject, psychology is interested in the reasoning behind several phenomena and hence studies the working and functioning of complex organs and complex systems in an organism.

Most natural sciences like biology and botany use an empirical approach, that is they use objectivity and empirical evidence. As a science psychology does exactly this, it refers to data being collected through observations, surveys and experiments and psychologists remain value-free whilst conducting research that is they try to remain totally unbiased in their investigations and are not influenced by personal feelings and experiences. Further, Psychology as a subject is interested in and studies in detail the working and functioning of complex organs and systems like the nervous system and the brain so as to understand and relate biological and socio-cultural factors. As psychology tries to predict, describe and understand natural phenomena such as the human brain and the human nervous system, by the definition of natural sciences i.e. branch of science that is concerned with the description prediction and understanding of natural phenomenon, psychology is a natural science.

Although the definition of Social Science describes it as the broader study of society, the scope psychology as a social science cannot be merely dismissed based on the misconception that psychology studies individuals. Psychology as a science studies individuals with respect to their/the society, and as we human beings are social beings the categorisation of psychology as a social science could hold true. Before studying the reasoning behind the occurrence of a particular behaviour, psychology focused on the individual person, and on their behaviour and their abilities in different environments and different conditions. Therefore based on practicality i.e. the use of psychology on a day to day basis in everyday life, psychology as a science may be categorised as a Social Science.

If one were to look at these two broad categorisations of psychology as a science carefully one would find several instances where the two branches overlap. For instance both as a natural science and as a social science psychology studies the inner workings of an individual. Hence, it wouldn’t be entirely incorrect to classify Psychology as a Human Science a branch of science associated with the study of humans their behaviour and the reasoning behind the occurrence of the behaviour.