THE CASE OF FOR & AGAINST PSYCHOLOGY
According to some people, psychology is referred to as an "illiterate upstart", repeating what has been said by literature and philosophy. During the time period in which "Becoming" was written, behaviourist approach and thinking was in demand and psychology according to them, was irrelevant and useless. Humanists who are influenced by psychology, show the character of modern behavioural science instead.
Supporters of psychology argue that scientific temper has brought humans through consecutive stages from the Stone Age to modern age of technology. They believe that if humans use the same temper towards "man's own nature", it would lead us out of the "Stone Age of human relationships"(Allport,3). Other supporters state that they know enough knowledge about human nature that they can change it in a single generation and would be able to reduce stress between people and nations only if their knowledge was applied by those that in a position to use it.
However, all supporters of psychology do mention that psychology is not a normative discipline, that is, it is not based on the norms of society. Unlike the other sciences which are cumulative, psychology is rather "an assortment of facts, theories and presuppositions" that are relevant to humans based on the particular theories, presuppositions that one wants to study. According to Allport, psychology should be holistic-we look at the systems as a whole and show how parts of systems are related to one another.
Allport looks into personality which he defines as the recurring characteristics, which are relatively stable across many situations.
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