Is Psychology a science?

If you visit the Wikipedia Psychology page you will see that psychology is defined as the scientific study of mind and behaviour.

Then if you think about a session with a psychologist, and you think of two people talking, and it doesn’t seem to have much to do with science. Is that true?  

Laura reads the post:

Let’s think about something that we believe is a science, for example, Physics. Let’s take a physics topic: electricity. Does anyone think, that the electrician who comes to the house to connect the electricity is a scientist? I doubt it. There is indeed a separation between science and a profession.

To define whether "something" is a science, we need to clarify what a science is.
By simplifying, we can define science as the field of knowledge achieved by a scientific method; that is, I hypothesize, observe, test, evaluate the results, and submit them to the scientific community.

I don’t know if you remember any psychology experiments. If you do, you can easily verify that the scientific method is (and must be) respected. So if you accept the definition I gave you of a science, we can conclude that psychology is a science.

Now let’s imagine being a psychologist during a session. Does the person who is talking to you understand what you are doing? Is it different from what a friend, neighbour, or priest can tell you?

A psychological session is not much different to when your doctor visits you and makes an examination and eventually prescribes medication. This aspect of work is part of the practice of the profession. The questions asked by the doctor or psychologist are supported by the scientific knowledge acquired by the professional through study; and they aim to clarify a symptom, give a name to a possible problem, and do provide educated guidance to help improve the situation.

To be concise:

• psychology is a science because it collects knowledge about human behavior, obtained by respecting the scientific method
  
• the psychologist is a professional who uses their knowledge in order to promote - through dialogue - the psychological well-being of the individual, or of the group, or of the society.
  

What do you think? Do you think psychology is a science? If not, why not?

If you want me to describe in my own words a topic of psychology, please request it in the comment section.

Sources cited: wikipedia page Psychology.