How is psychology as a scientific discipline similar to the casual observations you make about the world in everyday life?

Psychology as a scientific discipline differs from casual observations in that it requires scientific research to gather observations about a certain topic. Research Psychologists use the scientific method to design experiments to observe the topic at hand. The scientific method has six steps: form a hypothesis, determine how the research will be measured, develop a detailed procedure of how the experiment will be performed, gather participants who are applicable to the study, observe and analyze the data that was gathered during the experiment, and conclude what the findings were in the experiment.(according to Psychology 6th edition) Psychology would not be where it is today, if researchers did not perform scientific experiments and other research techniques. It is not possible for a psychologist to begin to fully understand one's mind and behaviors with out some sort of a scientific research.

Despite this, Psychology as a scientific discipline is similar to casual observations that we make about every day life. When a research Psychologist performs an experiment, as described in the one of the last steps to the scientific method, they compare the observations obtained in their experiment to casual observations in everyday life. One of the main goals of a research Psychologist is to better understand why people behave a certain way.

Karli Mangold