Assessing Students' Perceptions of Psychology as a Science: Validation of a Self-Report Measure

Training in psychology emphasizes the scientific method as the basis for knowledge claims about thought and behavior. Students are regularly evaluated in terms of their mastery of methodological and statistical principles, but little attention has been paid to assessing the degree to which students endorse the notion that psychology is, indeed, a science. Several studies are reported that validate a self-report measure of this construct. The Psychology as Science Scale is shown to be a reliable measure that predicts a range of construct-relevant attitudinal and performance criteria. Possible research uses of the measure, as well as broader issues surrounding the general public's epistemological assumptions concerning psychology, are discussed.