Fleshed out religion

[JFSOCC]

No, psychology and sociology have not advanced nearly as far as they'd like us to think. Do you know how many psychologists still follow the teachings of people like Freud, Jung, Adler, etc.? Despite the fact that those branches of psychology don't have any real science at all. Heck, there's plenty of experiments that show therapies derived from psychoanalysis are only as effective as placebos.

This is partly true. Yes, there is a lot of outdated information. As you can find in many many other fields. But the science itself has certainly moved forward in big strides, and those who still follow freud's teachings are considered to be behind the curve. (not that they're not interesting)

Your argument could also be used against many examples in the field of medicine, which is still a very real science.

 

Just because something is studied extensively doesn't make it science. Historians study mythologies and legends very extensively, does that make it science?

It does. And like any good science, new information replaces old information, and new methodology replaces old methodology.

 

Much of psychology is basically philosophy, or art, and I have no problem with that. However, they shouldn't be calling it science.

Yeah, that is dismissive and just not true. Maybe if you said it about economics

 

Even the more scientific branches of psychology overextend themselves and try to explain things that they have no way of doing. They lack very basic standards of operationalization and they're not able to adequately establish models to explain phenomenons. And as I've stated before, often times, they mistake definition for explanation. A lot of times, they would simply describe a phenomenon and put a label on that description, which is very useful, but then they would turn around and use that label as the explanation for that phenomenon.

I won't say the problem doesn't exist, with DSM5 about to hit us with a ****load of new diagnoses. But it's only half the picture. There is some real and significant work done in the field of Psychology, neurobiology and behavioural science, scientific work.

 

Psychology is still a new field, and as such has to "grow up" in a sense. That doesn't mean that it is not a real science or that there isn't real science being done. There is simply no cause to be so dismissive.