After reading this article you will learn about the relationship between psychology and common sense.
Science deals with ordinary phenomena. Events and occurrences which are common and part of our everyday life have the first claim on the scientist’s attention since ultimately scientific knowledge should help to improve life on this planet. If this is so, it is only right that psychology should be dealing with common occurrences and what appears to be common sense. At the same time what is common need not necessarily be simple.
A scientist studies and investigates common events but does it analytically and systematically. In view of this, his or her conceptualization often has to be more precise, systematic and analytical compared to that of a layperson. Further, when a psychologist studies a process like learning, he or she has to do this taking into account other processes like motivation, remembering etc.
While learning appears to be a simple and unitary process to the layperson, this is not so from a scientific point of view. Thus, the reader will find that the psychologist has coined a term like “reinforcement” to explain the relationship between learning and motivation. Let us take a simple example from chemistry. To the layperson, water is just water but to a chemist it is H2O (two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen).
The layperson’s approach is experiential while the scientist’s approach is explanatory. The latter has to explain the experiences of the former and to achieve this, the language of the former is often found inadequate. The reader will now understand why he gets the feeling that psychology appears to be just common-sense and at the same time confusing.
Yet another point that may be mentioned is as follows – Many of us will be ready to admit that we do not know anything of physics or chemistry or geology even though these sciences also deal with things around us. But when it comes to psychology most people grudge admitting their ignorance.
We feel bad about admitting that we are totally ignorant about ourselves. Everyone of us feels that he or she is some sort of a psychologist. It is this fact which often makes us feel that we know psychology and the psychologists don’t.
It is a difficult proposition to be objective about oneself and observe ourselves as we observe things around us. Unfortunately, unlike other sciences, the science of psychology has to confront this self-assumed wisdom people ascribe to themselves. The reader will be able to overcome his reservations once he realizes this and overcomes this subjectivism.