IS PSYCHOLOGY THE SCIENCE OF BEHAVIOR

The author discusses some of the reasons for, and consequences of, the custom in research of disregarding the complexity and nuances of behavior in favor of observing and measuring single facets of it. The roots of this practice appear to have started with the pioneer psychologists' determined efforts to demonstrate that their subject matter was tangible, not psychic, that it was natural and not supernatural. This defensiveness initiated the still persisting and widely sanctioned practice of playing up the kinship of psychology with biology and playing down its independence and uniqueness. The adoption of the methods of the physical sciences also led to an emphasis on regularity and thus to a slighting of the irregularity that is characteristic of behavior.