This Brief aims to provide a theoretically innovative introduction to
the methodology of the human sciences. It presents a new version of
methodology, as a system of mutually linked acts of creating knowledge
where both abstract and concrete features of research are intricately
intertwined. It shows how the constructions of particular methods that
are used in the science of psychology are interdependent with general
psychology. This is exemplified as the Methodology Cycle. The need for
an emphasis on the Methodology Cycle grows out of the habitual
presentation of methods as if they were independent from the assumptions
which they are built upon, with the ultimate goal of searching for and
creating universal principles. Chapters discuss the Methodology Cycle
and its uses in various areas of empirical study in psychological
functions.
Featured topics in this Brief include:
- The strict separation between methodology and methods.
- Introspection, the primary method of psychology.
- Extrospection, the act of introspection turned outwards.
- Generalization and its effect on uniqueness.
From Methodology to Methods in Human Psychology will be of interest to
psychologists, undergraduate and graduate students, and researchers.