You said this a little earlier in the thread. I thought I might comment on this statement.Originally Posted by jenovajunkie
You can't scientifically calculate or measure behaviour. There are a million and one reasons for why a person might do or think something. And there are a million and one ways to help that person with their problem. Say a person is coming to you presenting with extremely low self-esteem, no energy or desire to do anything and an admission that they've thought about suicide in the past. A practitioner of psychology would probably whack out DSM IV, diagnose them with major depressive disorder, give them anti-depressants and continue to see them whilst drawing from CBT (cognitive behavioural theory) to challenge their self-defeating beliefs.
That's all well and good, but I've encountered plenty of people in my line of work that have been dealt this hand by their shrinks and they don't understand why the meds aren't working. Then they tell me they're in and out of refuges, are long-term unemployed, have had their kids removed by children's services etc. A few weeks later, I could have this person settled down in public housing, starting training to get re-skilled and back in contact with their kids and suddenly - no more depression.
Just because psychology can prove that a specific, isolated behaviour can be 'fixed', it doesn't mean they can do it routinely without fail. Clients are never just faced with one problem, they come to practitioners with multiple, co-occurring issues so it's not as easy as saying "This person has X, so I need to do Y." Those trained in the field of psychology more often than not fall back on solutions focused on individual cognition rather than to do with social issues (at least compared to social workers), so it's not an exact science, because it doesn't take in the whole picture. To claim that it is smurfs all over other practitioners in the human service sector that work just as diligently to help people.
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