🧠 Psychology Audit — Section A: Core Definition & Scope (Green / Yellow / Red)

(This mirrors the psychiatry audit structure so the two can later be compared and merged.)

Psychology is even more heterogeneous than psychiatry — it contains real science, proto‑science, interpretive frameworks, and mythic narratives all under one roof. The audit exposes that clearly.

🧱 SECTION A — Core Definition & Scope (Psychology)#

What psychology claims to study:#

• Cognition
• Emotion
• Perception
• Learning
• Memory
• Behavior
• Personality
• Development
• Social interaction

We’ll classify the methods and conceptual units that appear in the core definition.

✅ GREEN — Empirical, measurable, substrate‑anchored#

These are the parts of psychology that behave like real science.

Experimental cognitive psychology#

Reaction times, memory tasks, attention paradigms, perception studies.
Substrate: measurable behavior, reproducible effects.

Psychometrics (validated instruments)#

Reliability, factor analysis, item‑response theory.
Substrate: statistical structure, measurement theory.

Behavioral psychology (strict form)#

Operant conditioning, reinforcement schedules, learning curves.
Substrate: observable behavior.

Neuroscience‑adjacent psychology#

Cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychology.
Substrate: brain activity, lesions, circuits.

Developmental psychology (empirical branches)#

Attachment studies, language acquisition, motor development.
Substrate: observable developmental trajectories.

Why green:
These domains use controlled experiments, quantitative methods, and falsifiable hypotheses.

⚠️ YELLOW — Mixed validity, partially empirical, partially interpretive#

These areas use some empirical methods but rely heavily on conceptual framing or cultural assumptions.

Personality psychology (mainstream)#

Big Five, HEXACO — partially validated, partially interpretive.
Substrate: statistical clusters, not biological entities.

Emotion theory (non‑neuroscientific)#

Constructivist vs. basic emotion debates.
Substrate: mixed; conceptual.

Social psychology#

Strong experimental tradition, but replication crisis hit hard.
Substrate: partial; context‑dependent.

Motivation theories#

Self‑determination theory, drive theory, etc.
Substrate: conceptual, partially empirical.

Developmental psychology (interpretive branches)#

Piaget, Vygotsky — influential but not fully empirical.
Substrate: mixed.

Why yellow:
They mix data with interpretation, and their constructs are not substrate‑anchored.

❌ RED — Non‑scientific, mythic, or unfalsifiable#

These are the parts of psychology that are not science, even though they are often taught as if they were.

Psychoanalysis / psychodynamic theory#

Unfalsifiable, narrative‑driven.
Substrate: none.

Humanistic psychology (as theory)#

Maslow, Rogers — meaningful but not scientific.
Substrate: none.

Jungian psychology#

Archetypes, collective unconscious.
Substrate: none.

Typologies (MBTI, Enneagram, etc.)#

Popular but not empirically grounded.
Substrate: none.

Pop psychology#

Self‑help, motivational narratives.
Substrate: none.

Why red:
These frameworks rely on storytelling, interpretation, and cultural myth, not empirical evidence.

🧩 Section A Snapshot (Psychology)#