Resumo

CUADRA, Roberto Bueno. Reflections about the subjet-matter and goals of psychology as a natural science. Liberabit [online]. 2011, vol.17, n.1, pp. 37-48. ISSN 1729-4827.

It is defined as subject matter of psychology the individual behavior, being understood as such the interactions between an individual with specific objects and events in his or her environment. From here, it is posed the differences between the proper fields, on one hand, of psychology and social sciences, and, on the other, psychology and biology. Then, the scientific goals of psychology, derived from the characterization of its subject matter, are described. They are description, explanation, prediction and control. These two last are not to be necessarily assumed in the sense of practical prediction and control, but are as criteria for validation of scientific explanation.

Palavras-chave : Behavior; Control; Explanation; Neurosciences; Prediction.