Pseudoscience....

[Necron2.0]

As someone who has been a recipient of their "tender administrations" (for being "uncharacteristically" smart) ... bull-crap. Psychology (outside of the study of behavior) IS most definitely a pseudo-science. The article says it, itself:

... psychology can rarely make “point predictions”.... imprecision is to be expected, because virtually all psychological phenomena hinge on unknown contextual variables.

That is text-book definition of a pseudo-science. By definition, science must be repeatable and verifiable. Anything that is not, is not science.

[eldargal]

Except it is. It is the systematic, scientific study of human behaviour, that it can't precisely predict things is irrelevant. Are you sure you aren't confusing it with psychiatry? A lot of people make that mistake. You are focusing on quote about the limitations of psychology to justify your claim, which is, frankly, bollocks.

The only issue with psychology is that it is the science of something that is incredibly complex and contradictory, namely the human mind. It's no more a pseudoscience that climatology is or the scientific study of any other vast, complex system.

Another [URL="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/make-your-mind/201208/despite-what-you-might-have-heard-psychology-is-science"]article[/URL]

Science:
1)The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural...
2) A particular area of this: "veterinary science".

This is exactly what psychology is. It is a science, objectively and unequivocally. To argue otherwise is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of psychology and science both.

[Ze_Shoggoth]

The dog star, Sirius is one of the brightest stars at night with an apparent magnitude < 0. It can be observed in both northern and southern hemisphere...

Well there is the FT for you.

Fatagn!

[Deadlift]

Not sure if its classed as a pseudoscience, but if you want to listen to a special kind of bollocks disguised as fact then look no further than Astrology.

[eldargal]

I'm not sure it counts because there are no claims to it being a science, it certainly is bollocks though.

[Deadlift]

I know it's just wiki but reading this it is indeed considered a science by its practitioners. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology[/url]

Through most of its history, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition. It was accepted in political and academic contexts, and was connected with other studies, such as astronomy, alchemy, meteorology, and medicine.[2] At the end of the 17th century, new scientific concepts in astronomy and physics (such as heliocentrism and Newtonian mechanics) called astrology into question, and subsequent controlled studies failed to confirm its predictive value. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in astrology has largely declined.[3]

[eldargal]

Hm in that case it probably would qualify.

[Wolfshade]

Psychology is hard and very easy to miss-understand results and so claim that observations are not repeatable.

Consider a standard science experiment, you set up the conditions, you observe the results you postulate a theory, then design and setup an experiment to see if your theory predictions are observed, if they are great, if not go back re-work assumptions. But the whole thing is that you are observing/experimenting keeping everything equal and identical aside from the variable that you are examining.

With people it is very difficult to do that. As the saying goes, no two people are a like, the closest thing you can get is twin studies as they have the same nuture and nature. But otherwise people are very different they grow up being taught subtly different values and these influence everything from the way they think, the way they percieve the world and the way the react to certain stimulus.

In essence all science is "throw something at a wall and see what sticks",

[Psychosplodge]

The problem with psychology is there's two types.
There's the actual science like Wolfie just described. Then there's the crap they churn out by the thousand from universities, that's little more than pop psychology.

[Mr Mystery]

And don't forget the difference between psychology and psychiatry.

One, any old quack can practice. The other? Serious medical profession. Which oddly, still uses Electro Shock Therapy...