Psychology as a whole can and is considered to be for the benefit of everyone. Psychology looks at human behaviour as well as cause and effect relationships. And so because it is for everyones benefit everyone should be able to understand what it is about.
Obviously I am coming from the view that it should 'be written for the laymen' although I wouldn't use that turn of phrase. The idea that writing in scientific lexis for the sake of it appears to be unfair. Yes, to be scientific is all well and good (psychology being a science) but it shouldn't be used to separate scientists from none scientists.
In A level Sociology there was the concept of the 'elaborate code' and the 'restricted code' in language. The elaborate code mainly associated with the upper class made use of a wider range of words and grammar whereas the restricted code, which was associated with the working class, was limited to the more basic. Furthermore it was suggested that the elaborate code was used to keep the upper class, upper.
Now I personally don't agree with this for the fact that, anyone can pick up a dictionary. But using scientific language, that to many is difficult to understand for no reason other than because it is scientific is uncalled for.
If it doesn't benefit the study, don't use it. Well thats what I think anyway!
Anyone else have an opinion on the subject?
Obviously I am coming from the view that it should 'be written for the laymen' although I wouldn't use that turn of phrase. The idea that writing in scientific lexis for the sake of it appears to be unfair. Yes, to be scientific is all well and good (psychology being a science) but it shouldn't be used to separate scientists from none scientists.
In A level Sociology there was the concept of the 'elaborate code' and the 'restricted code' in language. The elaborate code mainly associated with the upper class made use of a wider range of words and grammar whereas the restricted code, which was associated with the working class, was limited to the more basic. Furthermore it was suggested that the elaborate code was used to keep the upper class, upper.
Now I personally don't agree with this for the fact that, anyone can pick up a dictionary. But using scientific language, that to many is difficult to understand for no reason other than because it is scientific is uncalled for.
If it doesn't benefit the study, don't use it. Well thats what I think anyway!
Anyone else have an opinion on the subject?
I agree with your conclusion that technical jargon should be avoided unless necessary. However, by the time someone is writing scientific reports, the background knowledge needed to understand the concepts, is often best summarized in technical jargon. This is because the further you go in any field, and seen moving through school, you learn more and more detail, in less and less fields. Therefore, by the very nature of research and education, science will nearly always be written for the scientist, and not the layman.
ReplyDeleteWhilst some terms are going to have to be scientific (areas of the brain, for example), I do agree with your fundamental point that science should be written for every interested party to learn from, rather than the select few.
ReplyDeleteScience is, surely, about the furtherment of knowledge amongst mankind and, as such, the knowledge garnered from scientific research should be accessible to everybody and anybody, given that we are supposedly, to use the Government's phrase, 'all in it together'. Writing psychology in such a way as that only psychologists will understand it, then, is making it so that some of us are 'in it' more than others. Perhaps this can be extended to the original use of the phrase, too.