Psychology As A Positive Science

When the history of psychology is observed, it appears that psychology's identity of being a science has been achieved through its connection with physics. Starting from Müller, Helmholtz, Weber, Fechner, and finally, until Wundt, the basic idea was to determine the physical laws of conscience. Underlying this thought was the belief that Newton's laws could be applied to the fundamental issues dealt with in philosophy. The discussion of the mind-body problem, which was intended to solve whether the mind, a non-physical mechanism, interacts with the body as a concrete mechanism, and how this interaction occurs, has long been on the agenda in philosophy. The idea of explaining the spirit (mind)-body problem of Descartes using the principles of physics has played an important role in psychology's becoming a science. The shift of the psychology that came out with this thought to the side of social science did not last long. The difficulty in working with the methods of positive sciences, which constitute conscience items such as sensation, perception, memory, learning,etc. has been the main cause of this situation. Today, psychology is now at a crossroad and should decide whether to favour social science or positive science. This decision will have a very important place in shaping the present and future situation of psychology. Moving on from these thoughts, this study will be presenting a brief historical background of psychology and whether the present and the future situation should be shaped as social science or as positive science will be argued