by Eric Youmans

Created on: December 10, 2009

          Psychology is not an exact science.  One cannot duplicate experiments with human subjects and get the exact same results time after time.   Contrast psychology to a hard science such as physics or chemistry.  You can test the theory of gravity and get the same figures (acceleration = 9.8 meters per second squared) no matter how many times you run the test, as long as all factors remain constant. 

          When observing the processes of the human mind, one may find a particular result one day and a significantly different result the next day, no matter how rigorously the researcher maintains the parameters, integrity and continuity of testing conditions.

          The physical laws that govern movements on a cellular level will guarantee certain results within certain fields of study.  When one is attempting to study the human mind, and human behavior, there are no ironclad rules that can be proven again and again through repetitions of experiments.  However, there are ways to observe patterns of human behavior, analyze thoughts and predict actions of humans with a reasonable degree of accuracy, using the scientific method.

           When looking for patterns that can open doors to understanding a human mind, one must be aware of correlation and causation.  This distinction must be understood when measuring certain relations, such as a particular behavior and a particular environmental stimulus.  If a certain noise causes a child to behave in a certain way, the noise is a cause and the degree to which the child acts out is a correlation.  By introducing varying levels of volume, one can make noise into an independent variable.

         The unanswered questions regarding nature vs. nurture, and the unsettled debate regarding the influence of violence on television illustrate the soft nature of psychology.  Take for example, the case of a 9 year old boy who sees a man murder a woman on television.  He then takes a gun to school and shoots a young female classmate.  Did the image of violence on television make the boy commit murder?

          One theory holds that the boy’s behavior is a form

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