Psychological Science

Synonyms

Scientific psychology

Definition

The term psychological science refers to the accumulated body of psychological knowledge (i.e., pertaining to brain, behavior, social, or mental processes) that has been generated through the systematic application of the scientific method. The term psychological science may also refer to the process of conducting psychological research through the use of the scientific method.

The scientific approach to studying social, mental, and behavioral phenomena has existed for the full history of the field of psychology. Though some have questioned the applicability of scientific methods to researching mental phenomena for at least as long as its existence, psychological science has always been at the core of psychology as a field, and scientific rigor has been an aspiration even within the applied subdisciplines of psychology, including clinical and health psychology. Psychology as a discipline has more strict adherence to the scientific method than...