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Reconsidering Qualitative and Quantitative Research Approaches
Abstract
Rather than embracing the notion that contextualism requires purely qualitative methodologies, Westerman and Yanchar argue that there is a place for quantification in post-positivist research. Both authors provide compelling arguments for this position. From our cognitive developmental perspective, we see this as a move toward a new level of integration in psychology. Whereas reactive shifts between positivist quantification and radical contextualism exemplify the kind of pendulum swing we see in individual development immediately before the emergence of a new developmental level, the moves suggested by Westerman and Yanchar are in the direction of a qualitative shift—a new level of differentiation and integration. We argue that the arguments put forward by Westerman and Yanchar do not quite achieve consolidation at this new level, because they remain embedded in a post-positivist contextualism that demands an a priori rejection of psychological universals and strong forms of quantification. In our view, consolidation at this new level requires a shift to a problem-focused methodological pluralism that assimilates a wide range of methodological approaches, critiques them, and adapts them in light of the problems researchers seek to solve.
... This viewpoint puts in a very different light debates about which one of these approaches offers the right way to proceed (e.g., see Hoyt & Bhati, 2007). It also differs from calls for melding the two approaches that continue to view them as if they are distinct in a very fundamental sense (e.g., Dawson, Fischer, & Stein, 2006;Slife & Hopkins, Conversation 9 2005). As other contributors have argued (e.g., Yanchar, Gantt, & Clay, 2005), the decision to use quantitative and/or qualitative methods should depend on specific features of any given research situation. ...
... As I noted at the outset of this article, qualitative and quantitative methods are treated as different in a fundamental sense in the context of most debates about whether psychologists should employ one or the other of these approaches (e.g., Hoyt & Bhati, 2007) and in the context of most calls for mixed-methods research (e.g., Dawson et al., 2006;Slife & Hopkins, 2005), because qualitative methods are viewed as interpretive methods whereas quantitative research is viewed as free of interpretation or as an approach designed to minimize the role played by interpretation. This viewpoint would lead us to conclude that the examples of quantitative research I have presented differ in a fundamental way from studies by conversation analysts based on their qualitative methodology. ...
... In this article, I have tried to show that quantitative research methods can contribute to this successful research approach. I have supported this claim by considering several quantitative studies on therapy process and problematic interpersonal behavior and by offering some suggestions about how quantitative investigations could contribute to Peräkylä's (2004) Hence, while one might well say that I advocate methodological pluralism, the position I have Conversation 38 presented differs from how methodological pluralism is often understood (e.g., Dawson et al., 2006;Slife & Hopkins, 2005). Specifically, I do not advocate combining interpretive and noninterpretive modes of investigation. ...
In this article, I examine conversation analysis, a fruitful area of qualitative research, in order to extend my prior explorations of the idea that quantitative methods can and should be part of the repertoire of interpretive approaches employed by investigators committed to treating psychological phenomena as irreducibly meaningful. My examination includes considering several lines of research by investigators who are not practitioners of conversation analysis in which quantitative methods were employed to study patient behavior in psychotherapy and defensive behavior more generally. These lines of inquiry show that (a) quantitative research methods have a good deal to offer practitioners of conversation analysis as they endeavor to advance our understanding of the organization of interactions, and (b) we can employ quantitative methods and continue to embrace a commitment to interpretive inquiry. I also offer a critique of fundamental methodological precepts associated with conversation analysis, which differ notably from the precepts guiding most qualitative research efforts in psychology. In a fascinating twist, these precepts, which include discomfort with interpretive research procedures, have resulted in limitations in very recent attempts by some practitioners of conversation analysis to employ quantitative methods in their investigations.
... and Stein (2006) argued that although my ideas about integrating qualitative and quantitative methods are on the right track, they only represent a transitional phase because I rule out ''strong'' quantitative procedures even though those methods are very useful. Stam (2006) also argued that my position leaves out ''strong'' quantitative measures, which, he thinks, are necessary for meaningful quantitative research in psychology. ...
... This research has provided a great deal of support for a clearly delineated 13-level developmental sequence in complexity ranging from reflexive actions to understanding principles. Dawson et al. (2006) claimed that it demonstrates the value of ''strong,'' positivist quantitative methods, which, they say, are excluded in the approach to quantitative research I offered in my position paper. In particular, they argued that their work provides a ''developmental ruler'' that represents a universal, content-independent measure of increasing hierarchical integration. ...
... (footnote continued) Piaget's developmental model. Nevertheless, I will argue in what follows that Dawson et al. fail to recognize that the research is interpretive because they neglect a different way in which it is not possible to separate structure from meaningful content. one of the research areas discussed by Dawson et al. Dawson (2006) described a carefully developed system for assessing a subject's level of understanding this concept from responses during an assessment interview. But instead of proceeding this way, an investigator could examine what a subject does upon encountering a particular item while going through his or her ''inbox'' or when a subordinate asks ...
In response to points raised by Dawson, Fischer, and Stein; Stam; and Stiles, the author delineates what counts as “good” quantitative research according to his proposal for explicitly interpretive quantitative methods. The key points concern how to employ these methods, not which quantitative methods we should use—“strong” rather than “soft” or vice versa. The author discusses ways in which what others would consider “strong” quantitative procedures can be extremely useful, although he argues that these procedures are interpretive. The reconceptualization of quantitative research offered here also suggests that the distinction between quantitative and qualitative research is much less fundamental than most researchers think. In a consideration of what we can say in general about when to employ quantitative and/or qualitative methods, the author returns to the theme of the limits of possible understanding in psychology.
... (Holton, 1988, p. 41) The idea that science can subject the totality of its presuppositions to experimental tests of truth or falsity has been roundly discredited for decades. Although no consensus has emerged as to what this means for a methodical logic of science (Gadamer, 1981(Gadamer, , 1989Nielsen & Lynch, 2022;Weinsheimer, 1985), there are certainly strong indications that an emphasis on the playful absorption into dialogical relationships offers a number of advantages for structuring a new perspective on the mutual implication of subject and object (Dawson et al., 2006;Fisher, 2004;Nersessian, 1996;Overton, 2002). Perhaps it is not unreasonable to begin systematically investigating other options offering alternatives to modern dualist assumptions of alienated subjects and objects (Fisher, 2019). ...
... 35-36) The roots of social measurement in social processes can be traced from the ancient Greek origins of mathematical thinking in Plato's accounts of Socratic dialogue (Fisher, 1988(Fisher, , 1992(Fisher, , 2003a(Fisher, /b, 2004(Fisher, , 2010. Rigorous conceptions of qualitatively meaningful quantification based in irreducible complexity (Commons et al., 2014;Dawson et al., 2006;Dawson-Tunik et al., 2005;Fischer & Dawson, 2002;Overton, 1998Overton, , 2002 can be seen to extend everyday language into mathematical scientific language (Fisher, , 2020(Fisher, , 2021(Fisher, , 2023. ...
... Beyond that, there is even criticism that has a huge potential of enriching empirical psychology. For example, the many calls for giving up the strict separation of quantitative and qualitative methods and for relying more on qualitative inquiries can help psychology in becoming a more circumspect, profound, and rich discipline (e.g., Dawson et al., 2006;Westerman, 2006aWesterman, , 2006bWesterman, , 2011Westerman, , 2014Westerman & Steen, 2007;Yanchar, 2006). In summary, consulting a theoretical psychologist or a philosopher about one's empirical research might in many cases be more challenging than consulting a statistician, but that does not mean that it has to come along with destructive consequences for the research. ...
... My insistence on a more interdisciplinary education for empirical psychologists can be seen as one-small but important-part of a larger call for changes in psychology's scientific culture. Therefore, my perspective fits together with arguments for recognizing the fundamental philosophical dimension of psychological research (e.g., Bennett & Hacker, 2003;Fowers, 2015;Slife, 2000;Slife & Williams, 1997) and with arguments that call into question the distinction of quantitative and qualitative methods and the one-sided reliance on quantitative research (e.g., Dawson et al., 2006;Westerman, 2006aWesterman, , 2006bWesterman, , 2011Westerman, , 2014Westerman & Steen, 2007;Yanchar, 2006). ...
Years of research by theoretical and philosophical psychologists have amassed philosophically inspired arguments for the importance of philosophical reflections on the foundations of psychological research. The purpose of this article is to complement these philosophical considerations by showing that psychological research itself can add to our understanding of the limits of empirical psychology. By drawing on research on the Dunning–Kruger effect, I argue that psychologists that are not trained in philosophy can lack the metacognition necessary to realize their own ignorance about the philosophical dimensions of their empirical research. Because psychologists usually are not trained philosophers, they likely overestimate their own competence in judging the relevance of philosophical considerations for their research. Furthermore, this tendency to neglect philosophical considerations can be reinforced by motivated reasoning. Since philosophical criticism frequently targets core assumptions of psychological research, it can challenge psychologists’ self-image as rational and up-to-date researchers. Consequently, the reaction of psychologists to philosophical criticism can be driven by a motivation to protect core identities. The conclusion to be drawn from this argumentation is that philosophical training should play a bigger role in psychological curricula.
... For example, evidence of collective intelligence is emerging in three domains: psychometrics, neuroscience, and organization science. One of the major implications of the psychometric research informing CAT is that cognitive, moral, and behavioral constructs cohere at group levels not definable as mere sums of individual parts (Dawson et al. 2006). The projection of these higher-order levels of complexity emerges as a kind of choral harmonization blending multiple voices, perspectives, or behaviors. ...
... It is neither ethical nor practical for researchers to try to dictate or contrive artificial constructions of (a) the consistent order and spacing of items that emerge across samples from a common population, or (b) the consistent order and spacing of persons across different sets of items measuring the same thing. Even when construct theories obtain significant explanatory power (Dawson et al. 2006, Stenner et al. 2013, and items can successfully be written from specifications to measure at a given level, the researcher's cognitive operations are adapting to the construct's self-organizing properties. Insofar as it overlaps with the ways in which samples are drawn so as to represent populations, crowd sourcing can be seen as a necessary part of understanding what measurable constructs are. ...
Adaptive approaches to measurement and assessment have been useful in organizational science for more than 100 years. Advances in psychometric theory and inexpensive computing power have propelled the field into a renaissance for every type of construct and level of analysis imaginable. Exciting innovations include the use of mobile computer-adaptive testing (CAT); expert systems (e.g., automatic item generation); and unobtrusive adaptive measurement in social media, intelligent tutoring systems, and virtual worlds. Adaptive approaches are setting the stage to better embed measurement and intervention into naturalistic organizational settings and portend substantial improvements in cross-level and longitudinal tests of organizational psychology and organizational behavior (OP/OB) hypotheses.
... Maxwell (1965Maxwell ( /1890) considered a too-quick leap to mathematical analysis a distraction, saying purely mathematical simplifications are likely to cause the investigator "entirely lose sight of the phenomena to be explained; and though we may trace out the consequences of given laws, we can never obtain more extended views of the connexions of the subject." In the human and social sciences, little attention is paid to modeling constructs, though there are several significant exceptions (Burdick et al. 2010;Dawson et al. 2006;Stenner et al. 1983;Wilson 2005Wilson , 2008) that take up the challenge in ways analogous to the approach advocated by Maxwell, in terms of psychosocial explanations of psychosocial facts. ...
... In the wake of Rasch's work and later large-scale studies equating high stakes reading tests (Jaeger 1973;Rentz and Bashaw 1977), however, Stenner and colleagues (Stenner 2001;Stenner et al. 2006) developed an effective and parsimonious predictive theory of what makes text easy or difficult to read. Others have similarly devised predictive models of other cognitive and behavioral constructs (Dawson et al. 2006;Embretson 1998;Fischer 1973;Fisher 2008;Green and Kluever 1992;Wilson 2008) with the aim of achieving the degree of control over the instrumentation needed for the reliable and highly efficient automated production of assessment items (Bejar et al. 2003;Stenner and Stone 2003). ...
Geometry is the most ancient branch of physics. All linear measurement is
essentially a form of practical geometry. Following Maxwell’s method of drawing
analogies from geometry, Rasch conceptualized measurement models as analogous
to scientific laws. Rasch likely absorbed Maxwell’s method via close and prolonged
interactions with colleagues known for their use of it. Examination of the common
form of the relationships posited in the Pythagorean theorem, multiplicative natural
laws, and Rasch models leads to a new perspective on the potential unity of science.
To be fully realized in the social sciences, Rasch’s measurement ideas need to be
dissociated from statistics and IRT, and instead rooted in the Maxwellian sources
Rasch actually drew from. Following through on the method of analogy from
geometry may make human and social measurement more intuitive and useful.
... Being problem-focused and interdisciplinary, MBE must meet unique demands for quality control. Key directions for methodological innovation stem from two different problem areas and converge on an emergent mode of knowledge production, which we provisionally label as problem-focused methodological pluralism (Dawson, Fischer & Stein, 2006) and see best exemplified in terms of 'research school' collaborations. On the one hand, researchers and educators must facilitate the integration of diverse methods from different disciplines. ...
... In the laboratory, a good tactic is often to bracket certain perspectives in order to isolate factors and to clarify and simplify findings, but connecting research with educational import requires framing it more broadly, making explicit connections to the perspectives relevant to practice. In light of a symbiosis between educators and scientists a broad approach toward complex interdisciplinary problems emerges, which is best characterized as problem-focused methodological pluralism (Dawson, Fischer & Stein, 2006;Stein, Connell & Gardner, 2008). ...
In this position statement it is argued that educational neuroscience must necessarily be relevant to, and therefore have implications for, both educational theory and practice. Consequently, educational neuroscientific research necessarily must embrace educational research questions in its remit.
... The point is that "deconstructive doubt is not a doubt about things but about the unrevisability of established linguistic formulas" (Staten 1984: 156). A decisive question whose answer informs the conditions of the possibility of a postmodern science integrating qualitative and quantitative data and concerns into a broader methodological pluralism (Dawson, Fischer, & Stein 2006; Fisher 2004; Fisher & Stenner 2011) is whether the ambiguities of metaphor can be reconciled with the demands for clarity in measurement. Every concept articulated in language begins as a metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson 1980; Ricoeur 1977). ...
... Interpretive, qualitative methods of various kinds have been drawn from the works of Dilthey, Weber, Freud, Marx and others to investigate case studies as a contrast and counterbalance to the group Fisher: Metaphor as Measurement 8 orientation of statistics. This contrast between qualitative and quantitative approaches (Dawson, Fischer, & Stein 2006; Fisher & Stenner 2011) has played an important role in perpetuating the "Two Cultures" split (Snow 1964) by playing into the misconception that "dependable instruments for diagnosing the individual case" cannot be devised for the social sciences. Rasch (1980: xx) agrees that "this is a huge challenge, but once the problem has been formulated it does seem possible to meet it." ...
To what extent can metaphorical figures be said to converge with and separate from meaning in the postmodern context’s distrust of metanarratives? The need for any discourse, even a discourse of deconstruction, to assume some degree of such convergence and separability is related to Heidegger’s construal of the ancient Greek category ta mathemata as the fundamental metaphysical presupposition of “Academic” thinking. Metaphorically attuned and metaphysically cognizant quantification is hypothesized to require attention to the dialectical projection of mathematical criteria capable of creating an opening through which invariant expressions of meaning may emerge and persist. A class of measurement models ontologically structured in this way are described and briefly contrasted with more commonly applied approaches to psychosocial quantification. The extent to which the Nigerien Mawri metaphoric proverb “life is a mango” obtains a rigorous degree of figure-meaning convergence and separation is illustrated via an example involving a 59-question survey to which 77 persons responded. Grounding in an ontological method offers the potential for integrating metaphor and measurement in a common framework oriented toward the creation of meaning.
... This involves demonstrating logical understanding of what we do, how we do it and, equally important, why we do it. They advocate a move from narrow methods of assuring rigor gleaned mainly from the positivist tradition to a more pluralistic approach as a means of legitimizing naturalistic inquiry (Tobin and Begley, 2004:394) called by Dawson et al. (2006) problem-focused methodological pluralism (Dawson et al.,2006:229). ...
... This involves demonstrating logical understanding of what we do, how we do it and, equally important, why we do it. They advocate a move from narrow methods of assuring rigor gleaned mainly from the positivist tradition to a more pluralistic approach as a means of legitimizing naturalistic inquiry (Tobin and Begley, 2004:394) called by Dawson et al. (2006) problem-focused methodological pluralism (Dawson et al.,2006:229). ...
In our attempt to find the quality of a research paper, we are forced, at some point, to choose between qualitative or quantitative methods or to make a magic potion, by mixing the two methods. At the starting point of a great adventure, why not doctoral studies, this article presents a great retrospective in what qualitative and quantitative methods mean and how one can reach their quality. The article doesn’t take only the form of a literature review, but also of a hypothetical application for a future research. The studied literature makes the researchers aware of the fact that there are major differences between the two methods discussed and that searching for reliability and validity is appropriate only for the quantitative method, whereas the qualitative one asks for a more complex group of criteria.
... Being problem-focused and interdisciplinary, MBE must meet unique demands for quality control. Key directions for methodological innovation stem from two different problem areas and converge on an emergent mode of knowledge production, which we provisionally label as problem-focused methodological pluralism (Dawson, Fischer, & Stein, 2006) and see best exemplified in terms of "research school" collaborations. On the D r a f t — D o n o t q u o t e ...
... problem-focused methodological pluralism (Dawson, Fischer, and Stein, 2006; Stein, Connell & Gardner, in press). ...
Methods: Problem-Focused Methodological PluralismModels: Broad Frameworks for the Epigenetic System in ContextMorality: The Ends and Means of MBEConclusion
References
... In contemplating, then, the measurement of risks associated with AI, a particular kind of uncaring inattention that often characterizes mainstream approaches to quantification, presents a notable risk of its own: the confusion of numeric counts for measured quantities (Bateson, 1978;Wright, 1994). Although virtually everyone can understand that it is impossible to tell who has more rock or ability from simple counts of stones or correct answers devoid of additional information on the size of the stones or the difficulty of the questions, a large proportion of social and psychological measurement applications do not distinguish levels of complexity in either theory or practice (Dawson et al., 2006;Rousseau, 1985). But, as noted by Star and Ruhleder (1996, p. 118), if we: design messaging systems blind to the discontinuous nature of the different levels of context, we end up with organizations which are split and confused, systems which are unused or circumvented, and a set of circumstances of our own creation which more deeply impress disparities on the organizational landscape. ...
... Hypothesis-testing is the gold standard to determine such efficacy, trusted by journal editors, policy makers, and practitioners. At the same time, it is well-known that hypothesis-testing falls short in reaching marginalized communities (e.g., Brown, 1992;Berliner, 2002;Camilli et al., 2006;Dawson et al., 2006;Balazs and Morello-Frosch, 2013;Sandoval, 2013;Tseng and Nutley, 2014). Building on this work, we highlight a mismatch between the assumptions of hypothesis-testing and the characteristics of urban poverty. ...
Introduction
Math achievement for economically disadvantaged students remains low, despite positive developments in research, pedagogy, and funding. In the current paper, we focused on the research-to-practice divide as possible culprit. Our argument is that urban-poverty schools lack the stability that is necessary to deploy the trusted methodology of hypothesis-testing. Thus, a type of efficacy methodology is needed that could accommodate instability.
Method
We explore the details of such a methodology, building on already existing emancipatory methodologies. Central to the proposed solution-based research (SBR) is a commitment to the learning of participating students. This commitment is supplemented with a strength-and-weaknesses analysis to curtail researcher bias. And it is supplemented with an analysis of idiosyncratic factors to determine generalizability. As proof of concept, we tried out SBR to test the efficacy of an afterschool math program.
Results
We found the SBR produced insights about learning opportunities and barrier that would not be known otherwise. At the same time, we found that hypothesis-testing remains superior in establishing generalizability.
Discussion
Our findings call for further work on how to establish generalizability in inherently unstable settings.
... As a society, we are similarly transitioning from concrete articulations focused on numeric counts to higher order quantitative abstractions, formalisms, systems, metasystems, and paradigms [74,115,117]. Over the last 100 years or so, dating from Thurstone's [321] work in the 1920s, measurement operations involving abstract and formal expressions of quantity could not be performed without thinking about them. ...
An historic shift in focus on the quality and person-centeredness of health care has occurred in the last two decades. Accounts of results produced from reinvigorated attention to the measurement, management, and improvement of the outcomes of health care show that much has been learned, and much remains to be done. This article proposes that causes of the failure to replicate in health care the benefits of “lean” methods lie in persistent inattention to measurement fundamentals. These fundamentals must extend beyond mathematical and technical issues to the social, economic, and political processes involved in constituting trustworthy performance measurement systems. Successful “lean” implementations will follow only when duly diligent investments in these fundamentals are undertaken. Absent those investments, average people will not be able to leverage brilliant processes to produce exceptional outcomes, and we will remain stuck with broken processes in which even brilliant people can produce only flawed results. The methodological shift in policy and practice prescribed by the authors of the chapters in this book moves away from prioritizing the objectivity of data in centrally planned and executed statistical modeling, and toward scientific models that prioritize the objectivity of substantive and invariant unit quantities. The chapters in this book describe scientific modeling’s bottom-up, emergent and evolving standards for mass customized comparability. Though the technical aspects of the scientific modeling perspective are well established in health care outcomes measurement, operationalization of the social, economic, and political aspects required for creating new degrees of trust in health care institutions remains at a nascent stage of development. Potentials for extending everyday thinking in new directions offer hope for achieving previously unattained levels of efficacy in health care improvement efforts.
... Research on the BTAE can be informative even without measurements as long as it is understood as an interpretive endeavor. Other scholars have already demonstrated that there is an inherent interpretive dimension to quantitative research, and they have provided examples for new approaches to quantitative inquiry that take this interpretive dimension into account (Westerman, 2005(Westerman, , 2006a(Westerman, , 2006b(Westerman, , 2011(Westerman, , 2014Dawson et al., 2006;Tafreshi, 2021;Westerman & Steen, 2007;Yanchar, 2006). I will continue this line of thinking by showing how existing research on the BTAE can be freed from contestable assumptions about psychological measurement and be reframed as an interpretive practice. ...
Established measurement practices have been criticized from various theoretical perspectives. The purpose of this article is to argue that quantitative research could be more defensible if contested assumptions about measurement were abandoned, and to illustrate this thesis with the example of the better-than-average-effect (BTAE). If research on the BTAE is conceptualized as an interpretive endeavor, one can provide arguments that do not rely on psychological measurement for the claim that the BTAE is evidence for self-delusion in people. I outline these arguments and elaborate them by discussing a typical study on the BTAE. Furthermore, I show how a measurement-free characterization of the BTAE reveals an important research gap and points to the specific scientific value of research on the BTAE. Finally, I offer three general suggestions for conducting future interpretive quantitative research: justifying why a quantitative method is suitable for investigating a certain phenomenon, providing a comprehensive interpretation of the numerical results, and exploring participants’ understanding of the study material.
... Logical type distinctions of these kinds can be made across a potentially infinite array of levels. Transitions across levels of cognitive and moral reasoning have long been a focus of scaling research in developmental psychology [70,[140][141][142][143][144][145]. Probabilistic models for measurement have been used to show how different methods of numerically scoring developmental levels can be equated to common metric quantities. ...
As part of his explication of the epistemological error made in separating thinking from its
ecological context, Bateson distinguished counts from measurements. With no reference to Bateson, the measurement theory and practice of BenjaminWright also recognizes that number and quantity are different logical types. Describing the confusion of counts and measures as schizophrenic, like Bateson,Wright, a physicist and certified psychoanalyst, showed mathematically that convergent stochastic processes informing counts are predictable in ways that facilitate methodical measurements. Wright’s methods experimentally evaluate the complex symmetries of nonlinear and stochastic numeric patterns as a basis for estimating interval quantities. These methods also retain connections with locally situated concrete expressions, mediating the data display by contextualizing it in relation to the abstractly communicable and navigable quantitative unit and its uncertainty. Decades of successful use ofWright’s methods in research and practice are augmented in recent collaborations of metrology engineers and psychometricians who are systematically distinguishing numeric counts from measured quantities in new classes of knowledge infrastructure. Situating Wright’s work in the context of Bateson’s ideas may be useful for infrastructuring new political, economic, and scientific outcomes.
... Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoan (EAE) hezkuntza formalean martxan dauden BA esperientziak identifikatzeko eta xedeak aztertzeko, ikerketa-metodo kuantitatiboa eta kualitatiboa uztartu dira (Denzin, 1978). Alde batetik, metodo kuantitatiboak datu zehatzak jasotzea ahalbidetuko du (Dawson, Fischer eta Stein, 2006). Bestetik, metodo kualitatiboak aztertutako objektuaren alderdi soziala eta ulerkuntza holistikoa ahalbidetuko ditu (Murillo & Mena, 2006;Taylor eta Bogdan,1998;Tojar Hurtado, 2006). ...
Egungo testuinguruaren aldaketa sozialek belaunaldien arteko erlazioen distantzia areagotzen dute. Hori dela-eta, berebiziko garrantzia hartzen du belaunaldi desberdinen arteko erlazioak bultzatzeko espazioen sorkuntzak. Hainbat autoreren hitzetan hezkuntza formaleko eremua izan daiteke belaunaldi desberdinen arteko erlazioa sortzeko esparrua. Belaunaldi arteko esperientzien gaineko ikerketek azken urteetan gorakada nabaria jaso duten arren, Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoan gai horri buruzko hutsunea antzematen da. Horrenbestez, ikerketa honetan Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoan belaunaldi arteko esperientziek hezkuntza formalean duten presentzia eta xedeak aztertu dira metodo kualitatiboak eta kuantitatiboak erabiliz. Emaitzen arabera, Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoan hezkuntza formalaren esparruan belaunaldi arteko esperientziak aurrera daramatzaten ikastetxeen kopurua % 4,96 da. Horrela, belaunaldi arteko esperientziak aurrera daramatzaten profesionalen ustez, ezinbestekoa da esperientzia hauek sustatzea gizartearen kohesioa ahalbidetzeko.
... In this sense, the work of Yanchar and Westerman (2006) provide a fascinating discussion about it. In other words, they suggest the integration of quantitative methods into the post-positivist contextualist paradigm (Dawson, Fischer & Zachary, 2006). Yanchar and Westerman adopt, as a starting point, a historically-contextual-situated and selfinterpretive view of human mind (as the cultural researches that we are pointing out) and defend the possibility to combining a hermeneutic or interpretative viewpoint harmoniously with quantitative research methodologies (Yanchar & Weterman, 2006). ...
Several prominent scholars in the Social Sciences have defended the need for a new way of studying the relationship between culture and the individual. Over the last three decades, it has been common to find studies under the heading of Cultural Psychology (CP), which have focussed on the role of culture in historical and ontogenetic development. However, among the defenders of CP, there have been specific disagreements over theoretical and methodological aspects of the project. This lack of agreement is revealed by the different conceptions of the role of meaning and social practice in human psychological functioning. This paper aims is to analyze some different approaches to CP, and the role of meaning plays in its constitution. For us, the central claim of CP is that the human mind should be seen as inter-penetrated by intentional worlds that are culturally and historically situated, and this psychology must to study the ways psyche and culture; person and context, self and other, practitioner and practice live together, and jointly make each other up. In addition, CP has also identified the symbolic mediation of mind and culture as its analytical focus. Finally, we defend that culture and mind are to be treated as forms of culturally differentiated meaning practices. To make possible this enterprise, we propose the necessity to develop the notion of mediated and situated actions as a unit of analysis of Cultural Psychology.
... Steedle and Shavelson, 2009). In addition, the obtained interpretation also depends on which item or test characteristics are taken into account to illustrate students' performance (Dawson et al., 2006;Bernholt and Parchmann, 2011). Interpretations in large-scale studies also tend to perceive individual differences as ''noise'' in the data that can be accounted for by sound measurement or statistical procedures. ...
... So, recognizing that our judgments are always provisional and that no sample of evidence is ever absolutely conclusive, we have to be able to tell when our evidence is sufficient to the task of representing where someone stands. The technical challenges may be intimidating, but the sufficiency and necessity of Rasch's models [45,54] for integrating information across levels of complexity [50,55] is well established. The social challenges will likely be more difficult to overcome than the technical ones. ...
... In conclusion, the discussion on methodological issues on the investigation of the human mind is a cue to remark the necessity of taking into consideration the dialogue between phenomenology and cognitive science (Cappuccio 2006;Dawson et al. 2006;Dreyfus 2005;Francesconi 2009Francesconi , 2011Tarozzi 2012, 2013;Gallagher and Varela 2003), a dialogue that must be able to tackle methodological research issues such as the combination of standard phenomenological methods with contemporary research methods in cognitive sciences -including neuroscience and neurophenomenology. That combination seems to have some potential for research epistemology and methodology in social and educational sciences, which must be further investigated (Depraz 2006;Francesconi 2010;Gallagher & Francesconi 2012;Gallagher & Sørensen 2006). ...
The encounter of Phenomenology and Embodied Cognition Theory has produced a huge debate in contemporary human and social sciences. This debate includes also a discussion on methodological issues, in particular on two topics: the use of first-person data in cognitive science; the use of phenomenological approach in neuroscience (neurophenomenology). The study of consciousness and subjective dimension of human experience has almost never been part of the research agenda of cognitive sciences before the 1990s. However, nowadays, first-person data constitute a remarkable part of scientific research in this field and many others; subjective reports, indeed, are at the base of some experimental studies and of the ‘big data’ approach. In social sciences in general, and in education certainly, we can count on a well-established research tradition built on the phenomenological method, which is probably the most well-known and reliable qualitative method in studying consciousness. In this paper, I will discuss recent methodological proposals and issues arising from the encounter of phenomenology and cognitive sciences, specifically the use of DES method – Descriptive Experience Sampling – and Snapshot method to study in-vivo subjective experiences.
... In contrast, grand theories can be seen as overly focused on building one-size-fits-all theory to the exclusion of attending to the specifics of data, while mini-theory can be seen as overly focused on gathering specific data to the exclusion of building generalizable theory. As must be evident, I am a strong proponent of middle-range transpersonal psychology theory (M-R TPT), which I position within a post-positivistic epistemology (Popper, 2001(Popper, /1937 congruent with methodological pluralism (Dawson, Fischer, & Stein, 2006;Robbins & Friedman, 2009). My approach neither claims that M-R TPT needs to be veridical to any ontological truth, nor does it privilege any singular empirical method as inherently better or worse, but it is pragmatic for building a science of transpersonal psychology, as well as supporting transpersonal praxis. ...
Further developing transpersonal psychology as a science has been impeded by the over emphasis on two approaches to building theory, namely grand theories that attempt to explain everything and mini-theories that avoid explaining much of anything. In between these extremes are "middle-range" transpersonal psychology theories that can better allow for scientific progress. They bracket metaphysical and supernatural approaches common in transpersonal grand theories, and accept the possible generalizability of findings commonly rejected by transpersonal mini-theories. The transpersonal construct of self-expansiveness illustrates one way that middle-range transpersonal theories can lead to a program of cumulative empirical research and empirically informed practices. Other transpersonal constructs, such as awe, can also be good candidates for building and testing middle-range transpersonal psychology theories.
... More and more researchers today support the position that statistical methods have essential limits since these methods (1) do not refl ect the dynamic character of the process under study and (2) they are very limited in describing the processes in their wholeness (Anderson 1998 ;Dawson et al. 2006 ;Marecek 2011 ;Smith et al. 1995 ;Westerman 2006 ). Speaking about these limits, Valsiner ( 2009 ) pointed out that there are three major domains of oversight in psychology which are (1) eliminating the dynamic fl ow of the phenomena in the data, (2) eliminating of the hierarchical order (part-whole relations) in the transformation of the phenomena into data and (3) eliminating the immediate context of the phenomenon in its transformation into data. ...
This chapter discusses issues related to the methodology of developmental research from the perspective of cultural-historical theory (Vygotsky). The target question is how the video recording as a research instrument can become a valid and efficient part of genetic research methodology. Experimental-genetical method is based on understanding development as a complex process of qualitative changes. Its essence is to restore in specially created artificial experimental conditions and settings the entire process of qualitative change in developmental transitions from “buds” to “flowers” and then to “fruits”.
This means that the experimental study makes the process of development accessible for direct observation. In such an experiment, the development happens literally before the researcher’s eyes. Yet, eyes are not always the reliable tool. In this respect the video recording obtains an exclusively important role and place. Video recording of the qualitative changes and transitions in mental development makes possible to analyse the process of development in its dynamics and complexity. Genetic research methodology requires a reconsideration of video recording as a research instrument.
... Αλάιπζε Η αλάιπζε ησλ ζηνηρείσλ από ηηο ζπλεληεύμεηο ησλ ηζηγγάλσλ κεηέξσλ πξαγκαηνπνηήζεθε εθαξκόδνληαο έλαλ ζπλδπαζκό πνηνηηθώλ θαη πνζνηηθώλ πξνζεγγίζεσλ (Dawson et al., 2006). Οη ζπλεληεύμεηο (κνλάδεο δεηγκαηνιεςίαο) αλαιύζεθαλ κε βάζε ηε ζεκαζία-ζέκα ηεο ιέμεο ή/θαη ησλ νκάδσλ ιέμεσλ-θξάζεσλ (ελόηεηα αλάιπζεο) ώζηε λα εληαρζνύλ νη απαληήζεηο ησλ κεηέξσλ ζε θαηεγνξίεο, ιακβάλνληαο ππόςε ην θξηηήξην ηνπ ακνηβαίνπ απνθιεηζκνύ θαη πηνζεηώληαο ηελ πξνζέγγηζε ηνπ Mayring (2000). ...
Στην παρούσα εργασία διερευνήθηκαν οι πολιτισμικές αξίες 18 τσιγγάνων μητέρων από δύο οικισμούς της Κομοτηνής με αναφορά στην κοινωνική και γνωστική ανάπτυξη του παιδιού ηλικίας 6 ετών. Επιπλέον καταγράφηκε ο τρόπος που ερμηνεύουν τα επιθυμητά και μη χαρακτηριστικά του παιδιού σε σχέση με τους δύο αυτούς τομείς της ανάπτυξής του. Ο στόχος ήταν να αναδειχθούν οι ατομοκεντρικές και συλλογικοκεντρικές αξίες των μητέρων και ο προσανατολισμός τους σε εξωτερικές και εσωτερικές αποδόσεις για την αιτιολόγηση της συμπεριφοράς των παιδιών. Οι ποιοτικές και ποσοτικές αναλύσεις των δεδομένων από τις ημιδομημένες συνεντεύξεις με τις τσιγγάνες μητέρες ανέδειξαν, όπως αναμένονταν, ένα συνδυασμό ατομοκεντρικών και συλλογικοκεντρικών ιδεών, με επικράτηση των δεύτερων, για την ανάπτυξη του παιδιού και ένα προβάδισμα των εξωτερικών αποδόσεων στις αναφορές τους. Ωστόσο, η επίδραση των διαφορετικών συνθηκών διαβίωσης στους δύο οικισμούς φάνηκε να επηρεάζει τις απόψεις των μητέρων κατά τη συγκριτική θεώρησή τους και ανέδειξε ενδιαφέροντα στοιχεία για τις μεταξύ τους συσχετίσεις.
... De acuerdo a la controversia planteada, varios autores postulan la necesidad de un abordaje de método pluralista al momento de estudiar el comportamiento (Dawson, Fischer, & Stein, 2006), según el cual, de acuerdo al tema u objetivo del estudio en cuestión, se selecciona la metodología más adecuada para su análisis. De este l u c a s cu e n ya & e l i a n a ru e t t i modo, existen, en la actualidad, intentos de combinar ambos tipos de metodologías en enfoques mixtos o de triangulación (Hernández Sampieri et al., 2004). ...
The distinction between qualitative and quantitative methodologies defines two fields of research that are ruled by opposing paradigms. Scientific knowledge is characterized as rational and objective, factual and verifiable, coinciding largely with the attributes of the quantitative method. By contrast, qualitative studies seek to understand phenomena in their natural environment, obtaining data from the descriptions of situations, events, people, interactions, documents, etc. The qualitative approach is used to discover and refine research questions, but hypothesis are rarely tested. The paper analyzes the main characteristics of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and discusses the importance of ensuring the control and scientific rigor when examining the complex phenomena of behavior.
... According to Stein et al. (2008), the epistemological underpinnings of such an interdisciplinary approach include the recognition that description and explanation are in fact intertwined and so appropriate investigation of educational issues will involve multiple "levels of analysis" and the recognition of different "basic viewpoints." The implication is that the complex issues related to education require nothing less than an approach that will lay bare the complex nature of the phenomenon (Dawson, Fischer, & Stein, 2006). With reference to Habermas (2003), Stein et al. (2008) propose that such a dialogue will not only involve the discussion of 546 CLEMENT & LOVAT the explanatory and descriptive traits dimensions of the relevant disciplines but also a recognition of how these interact with personal values and motivation. ...
The burgeoning knowledge of the human brain generated by the proliferation of new brain imaging technology from in recent decades has posed questions about the potential for this new knowledge of neural processing to be translated into "usable knowledge" that teachers can employ in their practical curriculum work. The application of the findings of neuroscience to education has met a mixed reception, with some questioning its relevance for educational practice. Simplistic generalizations about neuroscience's application to education have been dubbed as neuromyths, and regarded as being at best irrelevant to or at worst counterproductive in bringing about good educational practice. In recent times, expansive literature generated in the area of educational neuroscience has drawn attention to a range of epistemological and conceptual issues pertinent to the attempt to translate neuroscientific research findings into usable knowledge that has the potential to improve curriculum practice. Issues involved in such a process include the place of neuroscience among the corpus of disciplines constituting the educational foundations; the conceptual framework required to translate knowledge between neuroscience and education; and, whether usable knowledge can be generated from neuroscientific information, so to be applied in curriculum work. These curriculum questions have direct bearing on curriculum work as the issue of usable knowledge relates directly to the teacher's role in the curriculum process. This article will consider the expectations and constraints in relation to the contribution of neuroscience to the production of usable knowledge for curriculum work.
... Although the participatory perspective leads to the view that both qualitative and quantitative research methods can play important roles in inquiry in the field, it differs markedly from calls for mixed methods, or methodological pluralism (e.g., Dawson, Fischer, & Stein, 2006;Gergen, 2001;Slife & Hopkins, 2005). Advocates of mixed methods view qualitative Running head: EXAMINING ARGUMENTS AGAINST QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH 13 research as an interpretive approach and view quantitative research as free of interpretation or as an approach that minimizes interpretation. ...
This article offers a close examination of critiques of quantitative research by 35 and 30, and Morawski (2011). One goal is to show that these three critics actually share with most mainstream quantitative researchers commitments to the Cartesian framework, even though this is not obvious because Cartesianism can appear in different guises. As a result of these commitments, the three theorists advance criticisms of mainstream quantitative research that fail to identify its key failings, put forward flawed views about how we should conduct research, and offer misguided criticisms of an approach I advocate called explicitly interpretive quantitative research. Another goal is to use the examination of the three critiques as a vehicle for clarifying the participatory perspective, a philosophical viewpoint that departs from the Cartesian framework. With regard to research methodology, the participatory perspective provides the basis for explicitly interpretive quantitative research, leads to ideas about changes we should make in how we conduct qualitative research, and treats quantitative and qualitative research as fundamentally similar because both should be pursued as interpretive modes of inquiry. I suggest that my analyses of the three critiques of quantitative research – or “case studies,” as I call these analyses – also may prove useful to researchers and theorists who want to develop a human sciences approach to other issues besides research methodology by helping them (1) recognize when lines of thinking that seem to depart from the mainstream actually represent variants of Cartesianism, and (2) consider what the participatory perspective might have to offer if they were to use it as the philosophical basis for their efforts.
... At the same time, other psychologists hold the opposite view, that the only way for a human science to proceed fruitfully is by employing qualitative methods (e.g., Stam, 2006), because using quantitative methods often trivializes, distorts, or ignores meaningful psychological phenomena in context. Furthermore, the idea that qualitative and quantitative methods differ in a fundamental sense does not only figure in debates about which one of these approaches is the right way to proceed (see, e.g., Hoyt & Bhati, 2007); it also can be seen in arguments in favor of methodological pluralism, which contend that we need natural science methods to study some aspects (lawful, mechanical) of psychological phenomena and human sciences methods to study other aspects (meaningful; e.g., Dawson, Fischer, & Stein, 2006;Slife & Hopkins, 2005). ...
We introduce this special issue by arguing that quantitative and qualitative research methods do not line up neatly with the guiding philosophical commitments of the two sides of the schism in the field between the mainstream, natural science approach, and the minority, human science position. This leads to the motivating idea for the issue, the view that quantitative methods, when used appropriately, can contribute to interpretive inquiry in psychology. We discuss the issue’s two main objectives—(1) presenting lines of actual research that illustrate how quantitative approaches can be used in ways that are consistent with a human science approach to the field, and (2) providing critical examination of the motivating idea—and introduce the articles in the issue that address each of these objectives. In the final section of this introductory article, we offer our thoughts about what the full set of papers accomplishes and suggest that the issue’s many-sided exploration goes some distance toward changing the terms of the quantitative—qualitative debate.
... Thus, the most common response at this point in the qualitative-quantitative debate is a call for some sort of integration of the two methodologies, variously labeled "methodological eclecticism" (Hammersley, 1996;Priola, Smith, & Armstrong, 2004;cf. Yanchar & Williams, 2006), "methodological pluralism" (Dawson, Fischer, & Stein, 2006;Payne, Williams, & Chamberlain, 2005;Richards & Bergin, 2005;Sechrest & Sidani, 1995;Slife & Gantt, 1999;Yanchar, 1997), or "mixed methods" (Bryman, 2006;Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007;Curlette, 2006;Giddings & Grant, 2006;Greene, Benjamin, & Goodyear, 2001;Hanson, Creswell, Plano Clark, Petska, & Creswell, 2005;Harden & Thomas, 2005;Johnstone, 2004;Kelle, 2006;Kelley, 2007;Mason, 2006;Shank, 2006;Stange, Crabtree, & Miller, 2006;Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2003). As the term mixed methods has become most prominent, I use it to refer generally to attempts at the integration of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. ...
Recent decades have seen a proliferation of research methods, both quantitative and qualitative, available to psychologists. Whereas some scholars have claimed that qualitative and quantitative methods are inherently opposed, recently many more researchers have argued in favor of “mixed methods” approaches. In this article the author presents a review of the literature on the issue of how to meaningfully relate qualitative and quantitative approaches, with a particular emphasis on recent calls for mixed methods. The relative success of mixed-methods approaches is examined, and some of the common pitfalls of these approaches are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... What research employing the methods of fundamental measurement theory (Andrich, 1988Andrich, , 2004 Bond & Fox, 2007; Fischer & Molenaar, 1995; Rasch, 1960; Wright & Stone, 1999) produces, in effect, are results delineating the properties of those rules of conduct that we did not make up in via a conscious process, and to which we adhere out of inclinations and tendencies that we do not yet understand. When these methods are followed to their logical conclusion, the rules governing cognitive and behavioral processes are understood with degrees of predictive validity (Burdick, Stone, & Stenner, 2006; Dawson, 2004; Dawson, Fischer, & Stein, 2006; Embretson, 1998; Stenner & Stone, 2003) not much different from those obtained in contexts in which we understand the functioning of things we manufacture. Of vital importance in arriving at this point are the distinctions between true and false individualism (Hayek, 1948), and between measurement and statistics (Andrich, 1989Andrich, , 2002 Fisher, 2010c). ...
Decades of research in education, psychology, sociology, and health care have established that investments in human, social, and natural capital can be measured in metrics as objective as measures of time, commodities, or manufactured products. When universally uniform and accessible forms of such measures are devised and deployed, and when intangible assets are managed alongside tangible ones for maximal value in efficient markets, then, and only then, will social welfare be maximized hand in hand with the maximization of the total market value of every firm in an economy. Instead of the confusion and lack of purpose promulgated by the balanced scorecard, a well designed instrument combining all relevant information in a composite single valued corporate objective function would provide a mathematically transparent, qualitatively authentic, and substantively manageable definition of that function. Enlightened value seeking is contingent on evidence-based, theoretically tractable, and instrumentally mediated information sufficient to the task of bringing externalities into account in financial standards and economic models.
... In light of these complexities we propose the value of taking a pluralistic attitude toward various methodological perspectives, one that entails a stance of openness toward all relevant methods to insure that no perspectives are unduly highlighted or unduly marginalised. Specifically, we suggest that a kind of methodological pluralism (Dawson, Fischer, and Stein, 2006; Stein and Fischer, forthcoming; Wilber, 1999 Wilber, , 2006) is an appealing quality control strategy for interdisciplinary educational endeavours. To ground our philosophical discussion we focus on how one might teach educators about the complex interdisciplinary topic of numeracy. ...
This article argues that certain philosophically devised quality control parameters should guide approaches to interdisciplinary education. We sketch the kind of reflections we think are necessary in order to produce epistemologically responsible curricula. We suggest that the two overarching epistemic dimensions of levels of analysis and basic viewpoints go a long way towards clarifying the structure of interdisciplinary validity claims. Through a discussion of how best to teach basic ideas about numeracy in Mind, Brain, and Education, we discuss what it means for an interdisciplinary curriculum to respect both the minds of students and the complexity of the subject matter.
... No obstante, si el fin del trabajo no se limita a una mera ilustración de una especulación teórica con los extractos de alguna fuente (por ejemplo, una entrevista), e intenta arribar a una conclusión analítica de un fenómeno (aunque el mismo sea único), pareciera ser importante que la cantidad de datos empíricos sea considerable. De esta manera, en la metodología cualitativa el concepto de saturación teórica promueve la recolección de datos hasta que los mismos no añadan más categorías conceptuales a la teoría propuesta(Jones, Manzelli, & Pcheny, 2007).De acuerdo a la controversia planteada, varios autores postulan la necesidad de un abordaje de método pluralista al momento de estudiar el comportamiento(Dawson, Fischer, & Stein, 2006), según el cual, de acuerdo al tema u objetivo del estudio en cuestión, se selecciona la metodología más adecuada para su análisis. De este ...
La distinción entre metodología cuantitativa y cualitativadefine dos campos de investigación que profesan postuladosparadigmáticos encontrados. El conocimiento científicose caracteriza por ser racional y objetivo, fáctico y verificable,caracterización que sintoniza, en buena medida, con losatributos del método cuantitativo. Por el contrario, el estudiocualitativo busca comprender los fenómenos dentro de suambiente usual, utilizando como datos descripciones de situaciones,eventos, personas, interacciones, documentos, etc.Este enfoque se utiliza para descubrir y refinar preguntas deinvestigación, pero solo a veces se ponen a prueba las hipótesis.En este trabajo se analizan las principales característicasde las metodologías cuantitativa y cualitativa, y se discute laimportancia de asegurar el control y la rigurosidad científicaal analizar los fenómenos complejos del comportamiento.
... Make no mistake, if we do not handle these foundational psychometric considerations we will remain on the sidelines as large human resource management agencies, test manufactures, and governments work to build educational infrastructures around approaches that can (ostensibly) prove the scientific-quantitative validity and reliability of their instruments. Importantly, quantitative and qualitative methods are not mutually exclusive; both can be transcended and included in more comprehensive and rigorous approaches to psychological research (Habermas, 1988;Dawson, Fischer, & Stein, 2006). The pursuit of psychometric rigor is not in conflict with the goal of "disclosing interiors" or providing rich, broad, and useful descriptions of psychological phenomena. ...
Quality-control efforts in the field of applied developmental psychology arejust beginning. In this paper I set these efforts in a larger context to frame theirsignificance and guide their direction. I argue that the challenges arising in the currentpost-national constellation are best understood as educational crises. The task demands ofthe global problem space increasingly outstrip available human capabilities. Thissituation is leading to a scramble for usable knowledge about education—defined broadlyas any process intentionally undertaken to promote human development. There is agrowing demand for techniques and technologies that catalyze the transformation ofhuman capabilities; and this demand exceeds available supplies. Education becomes agrowth market as specific types of human capabilities come to be recognized as scarcebut valuable resources. This pressing global demand for innovative educational solutionsand approaches has the potential to systematically distort the production of relevantusable knowledge. I present a set of general quality-control challenges that face the fieldof applied developmental psychology as it strives to meet the demands of a globalizedcrisis-ridden educational marketplace. I argue that the field should overcome temptationsto circumvent peer review processes by going directly to consumers. I suggest adopting ageneral stance of epistemic humility so that research and collaboration are promoted andargumentative strategies that insulate approaches from criticism are avoided. Finally, Iargue that more careful attention should be paid to the normative dimensions ofeducational enterprises, as they involve the creation of new values and raise ethicalquestions about the shape of what life ought to be like.
Ben Wright’s background in physics and Freudian psychoanalysis, working alongside wide-ranging, deep thinkers attuned to cross-disciplinary matters, like Charles Townes, Bruno Bettelheim, and Ben Bloom, set the stage for creative engagements with educational problems that still resonate with researchers and practitioners, globally. In Rasch’s models for measurement, Wright found a means not only for developing his own professional identity and writing his own life story but for also providing others with the means and media for their own imaginative variations on an invariant.
Technological progress does not happen in a social vacuum. Shaping of tomorrow is not possible without qualitative analyses. Therefore, the social and psychological dimensions of reality form an important part of technology foresight. Qualitative research will be needed to understand superficial and deep structures of social realities. So called push and pull factors are always linked to social behaviour. People's relationship to the use of technologies and the utilization of technologies is a complex and not a one-dimensional or monological issue. Monological methodological approaches can be harmful and confusing in the field of participatory foresight. We can conclude that the cycles of deductive and inductive logic are needed in science and in participatory foresight studies. Experts of the FTA community must have a higher level of methodological know-how in this research field and they should use qualitative methods in multi-faceted (external and internal) ways in foresight studies. Still the qualitative parts of many studies are quite monological and these studies can be quite problematic, even confusing. More critical methodological approaches should be taken into serious consideration. As a methodological approach, the principle of triangulation should be used more in the fields of participatory foresight studies and technology foresight.
The emerging field of mind, brain, and education (MBE) is grappling with core issues associated with its identity, scope, and method. This article examines some of the most pressing issues that structure the development of MBE as a transdisciplinary effort. Rather than representing the ongoing debates in MBE as superficial squabbles to eventually be “overcome,” this article argues that the politics of MBE language, discourse, and validity suggest profound epistemological differences that transcend a traditional interdisciplinary approach. Instead, MBE would benefit from a transdisciplinary approach that contextually accords equal and differential weight to a range of knowledge inputs from education studies, neuroscience, and other academic and practitioner spheres beneath the broad umbrella of MBE. Specifically, this article suggests that some of the key tasks for those involved in MBE studies require a transdisciplinary approach to knowledge translation and knowledge development.
Researchers have begun applying developments in neuroscience to reveal the underlying physiological mechanisms involved in learning processes, beginning with early childhood education and extending to the quest for lifelong learning. This chapter examines the research findings of neuroscience, from three distinct perspectives: psychological, educational, and technological. Our examination of memory processes (short term and long term) led to a discussion of perception, attention, and the role of the senses in the processes of recognition, the actions of composition and decomposition, and the activation of various parts of the brain. We looked at the establishment of new neural pathways, the development of brain-based curricula, and the interaction of these elements in learning outcomes. We also examined the differences inherent in learning new versus familiar concepts and disconnected data versus relevant information. Finally, we examined the processes and implications involved in the visualization of science-related concepts. With a focus experiments on the tracking of eye movements and the latest development in MRI detection with regard to the sequence learning system and differences in the activation of various parts of the brain, we found these research methods could apply to investigate a lot of kinds of studies including a comparison of the perception of actual events with those rendered in 2D low virtual reality and 3D high virtual reality.
This paper aimed to analyze and synthesize the empirical literature on positive psychological capital (PsyCap) published between January 2000 and January 2010, in order to identify: the correlates of PsyCap at the individual, group and organizational level; the variable status of PsyCap in relation to other variables, and the instruments used to measure PsyCap. The selected studies were analyzed using quantitative content analysis. The results are presented for each level of analysis: individual, group and organizational. It was found that most of the studies investigated PsyCap at the individual level (12 studies providing 16 independent samples; 88.89%), while only 11.11% (2 studies providing 2 independent samples) examined this concept at the group level. None of the selected studies investigated PsyCap at the organizational level. Although PsyCap was researched as a predictor for a wide range of work-related outcomes such as performance, behavioral, attitudinal, intentional, affective and health-related outcomes, the most studied outcome at the individual and group level of analysis was performance, mainly job performance. Furthermore, all the studies included subjective measures of PsyCap. Based on these findings several implications and future research were presented.
Jean Piaget's work has led to divergent evaluations, one negative, the other promising in two ways. One is Piaget's pedagogy whose four principles are: children have to be taught to think autonomously for themselves; teaching creates contexts for learning; good learning is collaborative; and it requires self-government. A series of Piagetian interventions have demonstrated durable, transferable outcomes. The other is Piaget's model of the development of norms used in right/wrong judgments from mathematics to morality. Human agents have normative capabilities intrinsic to understanding and creativity. It is a fundamental error to confuse causal regularities with normative regulations by living agents.
This chapter outlines a guide to building middle-range transpersonal psychology theory (M-R TPT) as an alternative to both grand theory and mini-theory. In order to build M-R TPT, emphasis is placed on developing concepts, including constructs that are empirically accessible and relevant to transpersonal psychology. This requires bracketing concepts that are metaphysical and supernatural, as they are outside of the purview of science. A viable transpersonal psychology based on such development can lead to useful theories, cumulative programs of research, and applied practices that are empirically supported. Although the author maintains that self-expansiveness can provide a fruitful way to create and develop a variety of transpersonal psychology theories, it is just one among many other possible concepts that offers heuristic potential for empirically developing and testing such theories through programs of cumulative research, as well as for furthering evidence-based transpersonal psychology praxis.
In this contribution we discuss how, when observing social interactions, qualitative and quantitative research can each enrich the other. First, we highlight the usefulness of qualitative research for subsequent quantitative studies. We also mention some possible misunderstandings in the way qualitative researchers view quantitative research. We discuss criticisms regarding ‘natural’ units of analysis, the use of ‘pre-defined’ categories, the sequential context, the multifaceted aspect of interaction and the role of transcripts. Second, we present two research examples - one based on time series graphs, the other on similarity maps - that demonstrate how quantitative analysis can be used to identify points in interaction that require further qualitative analysis (eg particular phases of interaction, critical points such as positive/negative shifts, unique cases).
In the face of current value chain trends, e.g. outsourcing, global sourcing or the constitution of buying centres, B2B buyer-seller relationships are increasingly important. A frequently assumed paradigm of organizational buying behaviour is that professional buyers pursue corporate decisions based on rigorous cognitive analysis. Whereas consumer buying behaviour research suggests a strong influence of emotional aspects, the literature on organizational buying and supply chain management predominantly emphasizes the cognitive perspective of purchasing decisions. However it is questionable, whether purchasing representatives radically change their consumer behaviour in their business contexts. The majority of existing empirical (predominantly quantitative) surveys show limited explanatory power regarding emotional aspects within B2B purchasing and often can’t be generalized. Altogether there are strong reasons to investigate the nature of emotions in the course of professional purchase decisions. This paper intends to study the questions how far emotion is involved in the organizational buying and decision making process and which emotions can be identified. Subsequent to a thorough literature review we will apply a qualitative empirical research approach. The results will be duly substantiated into concrete managerial recommendations within the fields of sales and supplier management.
Current reforms in the education policy of various countries are intended to produce a paradigm shift in the educational system towards an outcome orientation. After implementing educational standards as normative objectives, the development of test procedures that adequately reflect these targets and standards is a central problem. This paper constructs the theoretical framework for the assessment of students' content knowledge in chemistry. The resulting scheme and manual were used to develop model-based tasks in various content areas. Students' performances in paper and pencil tests taken in school grades 6 to 12 were analyzed. The quantitative data were used for a reliable classification of the tasks. The results shed light on the development of content knowledge in chemistry as well as on the various systematic factors that influence students' performance.
Separated and mixed applications of qualitative and quantitative methods are typically encumbered by markedly different philosophical orientations. Multiple inefficiencies arise when mixed methods work at cross purposes with each other. The phenomenological method, however, integrates qualitative and quantitative concerns in ways that orient research toward uniform criteria of substantive meaningfulness and mathematical rigor. Three characteristics of a qualitative-quantitative methodological pluralism are described: structural invariance, substantive interpretability, and the display of anomaly. When combined with networked information technologies, new opportunities emerge for a qualitatively meaningful and quantitatively precise measurement framework in the research and practice of the human sciences.
With the quantitative–qualitative debate as a basis, this paper considers the relative merits and limitations of applying quantitative methods to comparative housing research. Although the initial discussion takes place in general terms, the example of the impact of an increase in real house prices on real consumers’ expenditure is employed to illustrate the issues that a housing researcher faces when applying statistical techniques to cross-country data. After reviewing the criticisms of the methodology, the paper concludes that quantitative methods should still be the workhorse for comparative housing research, but only if various conditions are satisfied and that the procedures are correctly followed.
The author addresses three commentaries to his earlier article “On the possibility of contextual-quantitative inquiry.” In response to these commentaries, the author identifies some examples of contextual-quantitative inquiry in use, questions the necessity of a link between numeric data and Pythagoreanism, and argues that not all methodological possibilities can be entertained at once in coherent research. Finally, the author notes that this argument regarding numeric forms of inquiry in contextual-interpretive research attempts to avoid the extremes of uncritical methodological inclusiveness on the one hand and overly narrow methodological exclusiveness on the other.
Proposals for incorporating information on the quality of human, social, and environmental conditions in more authentic and comprehensive versions of the Gross National Product (GNP) or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) date back to the foundations of econometrics. Typically treated as external to markets, these domains have lately been objects of renewed interest as calls for accountability and transparency have expanded to include their now topical but previously neglected economic implications. Extensive and expensive data systems are underused for a variety of technical and social reasons that could conceivably be successfully addressed via systematic and coordinated efforts. The United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals accountability system is used to illustrate how data quality can be more effectively and efficiently evaluated, how data volume can be reduced with no loss of information, how measures can be made more meaningful, and how they can be made more socially acceptable. Of particular importance are methods for harnessing the energy of the profit motive in national and global efforts aiming to affect these indicators.
The consolidation/transition model conceptualizes development as entailing a cyclical pattern of alternating consolidation and transition phases and posits that stage advance is predicted by a specific distribution of reasoning across stages indicative of disequilibrium (more reasoning above than below the mode, with a high degree of mixture). The validity of this model was examined in the context of moral reasoning development with the use of standard statistical techniques as well as Bayesian techniques that can better account for classification error. In this longitudinal study, 64 children and adolescents participated in 5 annual administrations of the Moral Judgment Interview. The distribution of their reasoning across stages was used to predict subsequent development. The results support the hypotheses regarding cyclical patterns of change and predictors of stage transition and demonstrate the utility of Bayesian techniques for evaluating developmental change.
Thoughts conveyed through gesture often differ from thoughts conveyed through speech. In this article, a model of the sources and consequences of such gesture–speech mismatches and their role during transitional periods in the acquisition of concepts is proposed. The model makes 2 major claims: (a) The transitional state is the source of gesture–speech mismatch. In gesture–speech mismatch, 2 beliefs are simultaneously expressed on the same problem—one in gesture and another in speech. This simultaneous activation of multiple beliefs characterizes the transitional knowledge state and creates gesture–speech mismatch. (b) Gesture–speech mismatch signals to the social world that a child is in a transitional state and is ready to learn. The child's spontaneous gestures index the zone of proximal development, thus providing a mechanism by which adults can calibrate their input to that child's level of understanding.
This project examines the shape of conceptual development from early childhood through adulthood. To do so we model the attainment of developmental complexity levels in the moral reasoning of a large sample (n= 747) of 5- to 86-year-olds. Employing a novel application of the Rasch model to investigate patterns of performance in these data, we show that the acquisition of successive complexity levels proceeds in a pattern suggestive of a series of spurts and plateaus. We also show that there are six complexity levels represented in performance between the ages of 5 and 86; that patterns of performance are consistent with the specified sequence; that these findings apply to both childhood and adulthood levels; that sex is not an important predictor of complexity level once educational attainment has been taken into account; and that both age and educational attainment predict complexity level well during childhood, but educational attainment is a better predictor in
late adolescence and adulthood.
A number of leadership theories emphasize the role of conceptions of leadership in leader/follower interactions and the concomitant need to understand what leaders and followers are thinking (Bass, 1985; Burns, 1978; Lord & Emrich, 2000). In an attempt to move toward a measure of leadership reasoning, we employed a research methodology called developmental maieutics to investigate the development of conceptions of leadership in a sample of children, adolescents, and adults. All respondents participated in open-ended clinical interviews designed to probe their conceptual understandings. The interviews were transcribed and submitted to two independent analyses. First, interviews were scored with a general developmental assessment system, the Lectical™ Assessment System (Dawson-Tunik, 2005). Next, the interviews were submitted to a detailed analysis of their conceptual content. The combined results were employed to construct an account of the development of leadership conceptions.
Examined the relation between brain activation and cognitive development using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and a longitudinal design. 5 yr old females performed a visual recognition ('oddball') task and an experimental analogue of the Piagetian conservation of liquid quantity task At three experimental sessions, with one year between consecutive sessions. The data revealed age-related changes in neurocognitive mechanisms common to both tasks. In comparing children before and after a Piagetian transition on a traditional clinical conservation test the data revealed a major shift in performance and ERPs to the experimental analogue of the liquid quantity task. These findings are consistent with a previously performed cross-sectional study and provide strong support for the hypothesis that cognitive transition is related to new neurocognitive mechanisms emerging during childhood. Possible implications of these findings for child neuropsychology are discussed.
Skill theory provides tools for predicting developmental sequences and synchronies in any domain at any point in development by integrating behavioral and cognitive-developmental concepts. Cognitive development is explained by skill structures called "levels," together with transformation rules relating these levels to each other. The transformation rules specify the developmental steps by which a skill moves gradually from one level of complexity to the next. At every step in these developmental sequences, the individual controls a particular skill. Skills are gradually transformed from sensory-motor actions to representations and then to abstractions. The transformations produce continuous behavioral changes; but across the entire profile of a person's skills and within highly practiced task domains, a stagelike shift in skills occurs as the person develops to an optimal level. The theory suggests a common framework for integrating developmental analyses of cognitive, social, language, and perceptual-motor skills and certain behavioral changes in learning and problem solving. (6 p ref)
Conducted 4 experiments with 140 3-, 4-, 5-, and 9-yr-olds to examine the cognitive bases of children's judgments of morality. Moral dilemmas consisting of information about a character's motives and the consequences of these actions were devised such that the order, concreteness, and imageability of information were systematically varied. Results show that 5-yr-old males, but not females, favored recent information while the other variables had no impact on Ss' moral judgments. Overall, the number of 5-yr-olds who used motive information was not significantly different from the number who used outcome information. In the 4th study, the reasoning strategy was examined rather than the content of children's judgments. Three distinct strategies of reasoning were observed: (a) focusing on either the motive or outcome to the exclusion of the other, (b) switching focus from one piece of information to the other, and finally (c) considering both aspects of the dilemma at a time. These abilities had significant parallels in a spatial rotation task. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Many critics of positivism in psychology oppose the use of quantitative research methods. The author first argues that a premise accepted by both critics and supporters of quantitative research is mistaken. Contrary to what many critics and supporters alike believe, interpretation plays key, unacknowledged roles in how quantitative methods are actually employed. The author then argues that a hermeneutic perspective based on practices leads to the view that our understanding of psychological phenomena is irreducibly interpretive and also leads to recognizing that quantitative research can make a unique contribution to inquiry. In the final section of the article, the author offers suggestions about how to conduct explicitly interpretive quantitative investigations. These suggestions are based on the view that although the influence of positivism is not all-constraining (and, therefore, interpretation typically does enter into quantitative methods as they are actually employed), commitments to positivism do constrain how quantitative researchers pursue their work. As part of marking out a different critical viewpoint on positivism, the author attempts to identify what is really involved in going beyond a modernist approach.
Thoughts conveyed through gesture often differ from thoughts conveyed through speech. In this article, a model of the sources and consequences of such gesture-speech mismatches and their role during transitional periods in the acquisition of concepts is proposed. The model makes 2 major claims: (a) The transitional state is the source of gesture-speech mismatch. In gesture-speech mismatch, 2 beliefs are simultaneously expressed on the same problem--one in gesture and another in speech. This simultaneous activation of multiple beliefs characterizes the transitional knowledge state and creates gesture-speech mismatch. (b) Gesture-speech mismatch signals to the social world that a child is in a transitional state and is ready to learn. The child's spontaneous gestures index the zone of proximal development, thus providing a mechanism by which adults can calibrate their input to that child's level of understanding.
The consolidation/transition model conceptualizes development as entailing a cyclical pattern of alternating consolidation and transition phases and posits that stage advance is predicted by a specific distribution of reasoning across stages indicative of disequilibrium (more reasoning above than below the mode, with a high degree of mixture). The validity of this model was examined in the context of moral reasoning development with the use of standard statistical techniques as well as Bayesian techniques that can better account for classification error. In this longitudinal study. 64 children and adolescents participated in 5 annual administrations of the Moral Judgment Interview. The distribution of their reasoning across stages was used to predict subsequent development. The results support the hypotheses regarding cyclical patterns of change and predictors of stage transition and demonstrate the utility of Bayesian techniques for evaluating developmental change.
Evidence from developmental psychology suggests that understanding other minds constitutes a special domain of cognition with at least two components: an early-developing system for reasoning about goals, perceptions, and emotions, and a later-developing system for representing the contents of beliefs. Neuroimaging reinforces and elaborates upon this view by providing evidence that (a) domain-specific brain regions exist for representing belief contents, (b) these regions are apparently distinct from other regions engaged in reasoning about goals and actions (suggesting that the two developmental stages reflect the emergence of two distinct systems, rather than the elaboration of a single system), and (c) these regions are distinct from brain regions engaged in inhibitory control and in syntactic processing. The clear neural distinction between these processes is evidence that belief attribution is not dependent on either inhibitory control or syntax, but is subserved by a specialized neural system for theory of mind.
The author uses a cognitive developmental approach to investigate educational conceptions, addressing the question, How does evaluative reasoning about education change over the course of cognitive development? The author conducted independent analyses of the developmental level and conceptual content of 246 interview performances of individuals aged 5 to 86 years. The developmental level of the interview performances was assessed with a content-general scoring system, the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System. A Rasch analysis of the results revealed 6 developmental levels and provided support for invariant sequence, developmental spurts and plateaus, and similar developmental patterns for childhood and adulthood levels. The results of the subsequent analysis of the propositional content of the same interview texts were used to produce qualitative descriptions of changes in evaluative reasoning about education across the 6 levels identified in the data. Finally, descriptions constructed in this way, although richer and less prone to reification, were shown to be conceptually analogous to the stage definitions produced by other cognitive developmental researchers. The implications of the method and findings are discussed.
Microdevelopment is the process of change in abilities, knowledge and understanding during short time-spans. This book presents a new process-orientated view of development and learning based on recent innovations in psychology research. Instead of characterising abilities at different ages, researchers investigate processes of development and learning that evolve through time and explain what enables progress in them. Four themes are highlighted: variability, mechanisms that create transitions to higher levels of knowledge, interrelations between changes in the short-term scale of microdevelopment and the crucial effect of context. Learning and development are analysed in and out of school, in the individual's activities and through social interaction, in relation to simple and complex problems and in everyday behaviour and novel tasks. With contributions from the foremost researchers in the field Microdevelopment will be essential reading for all interested in cognitive and developmental science.
Developmental and child psychology remains a vital area in modern psychology. This comprehensive set covers a broad spectrum of developmenal issues, from the psychology of the infant, the family, abilities and disabilities, children's art, imagination, play, speech, mental development, perception, intelligence, mental health and education. In looking at areas which continue to be very important today, these volumes provide a fascinating look at how approaches and attitudes to children have changed over the years. The set includes nine volumes by key development psychologist Jean Piaget, as well as titles by Charlotte Buhler and Susan Isaacs.
Dynamic systems theory conceives of development as a self-organizational process. Both complexity and order emerge as a product of elementary principles of interaction between components involved in the developmental process. This article presents a dynamic systems model based on a general dual developmental mechanism, adapted from Piaget and Vygotsky. The mechanism consists of a conservative force, further strengthening the already-consolidated level, and a progressive force, consolidating internal contents and procedures at more advanced levels. It is argued that this dual mechanism constitutes one of the few basic laws of learning and change, and is comparable to the laws of effect and of contiguity. Simulation studies suggest that this dual mechanism explains self-organization in developmental paths, including the emergence of discrete jumps from one equilibrium level to another, S-shaped growth, and the occurrence of co-existing levels.
The major purpose of this paper is to introduce the notion of the order of hierarchical complexity of tasks. Order of hierarchical complexity is a way of conceptualizing information in terms of the power required to complete a task or solve a problem. It is orthogonal to the notion of information coded as bits in traditional information theory. Because every task (whether experimental or everyday) that individuals engage in has an order of hierarchical complexity associated with it, this notion of hierarchical complexity has broad implications both within developmental psychology and beyond it in such fields as information science. Within developmental psychology, traditional stage theory has been criticized for not showing that stages exist as anything more thanad hocdescriptions of sequential changes in human behavior (Kohlberg & Armon, 1984; Gibbs, 1977, 1979; Broughton, 1984). To address this issue, Commons and Richards (1984a,b) argued that a successful developmental theory should address two conceptually different issues: (1) the hierarchical complexity of the task to be solved and (2) the psychology, sociology, and anthropology of such task performance and how that performance develops. The notion of the hierarchical complexity of tasks, introduced here, formalizes the key notions implicit in most stage theories, presenting them as axioms and theorems. The hierarchical complexity of tasks has itself been grounded in mathematical models (Coombs, Dawes, & Tversky, 1970) and information science (Lindsay & Norman, 1977). The resultant definition of stage is that it is the highest order of hierarchical complexity on which there is successful task performance. In addition to providing an analytic solution to the issue of what are developmental stages, the theory of hierarchical complexity presented here allows for the possibility within science of scaling the complexity in a form more akin to intelligence.
This study examined Chinese shame concepts. By asking native Chinese to identify terms for shame, we collected 113 shame terms. Hierarchical cluster analysis of sorted terms yielded a comprehensive map of the concept. We found, at the highest abstract level, two large distinctions of “shame state, self‐focus” and “reactions to shame, other‐focus.” While the former describes various aspects of actual shame experience that focuses on the self, the latter focuses on consequences of and reactions to shame directed at others. Shame state with self‐focus contained three further sets of meanings: (1) one's fears of losing face; (2) the feeling state after one's face has been lost; and (3) guilt. Reactions to shame with other‐focus also consisted of three further sets of subcomponents at the same level: (4) disgrace; (5) shamelessness and its condemnation; and (6) embarrassment. Except for guilt, there were several subclusters under each of these categories. We discussed both universal trends and specific constellations of shame concepts in Chinese culture.
Concepts from functional theories of emotions are integrated with principles of skill development to produce a theory of emotional development. The theory provides tools for predicting both the sequences of emotional development and the ways emotions shape development. Emotions are characterised in terms of three component models: (a) the process of emotion generation from event appraisal, (b) a hierarchy of emotion categories organised around a handful of basic-emotion families, and (c) a characterisation of emotions in terms of prototypic event scripts. The basic emotions and the positive vs. negative hedonic components of emotions function as constraints or organisers that shape behaviour whenever an emotion is activated. Through these patterning effects, emotions shape both short-term behavioural organisation and long-term development. The skill-development component of the theory explains how, as children grow, they construct and control increasingly complex skills—which affect many aspects of emotion, from appraisal to emotional self-control. These skills can be characterised in terms of a series of developmental tiers and levels; they are not fixed traits of the child but instead are affected by assessment conditions and emotional action tendencies. The developmental process gradually moves from basic, species-specific emotions to culture-specific, subordinate-category emotions and the complexities of adult emotional experiences. The theory provides a set of conceptual and methodological tools to predict and assess emotional development. It also indicates how emotional development fits with other aspects of systematic change in the organisation of behaviour.
This long-awaited two-volume set constitutes the definitive presentation of the system of classifying moral judgment built up by Lawrence Kohlberg and his associates over a period of twenty years.
Volume 1 reviews Kohlberg's stage theory, and the by-now large body of research on the significance and utility of his moral stages. Issues of reliability and validity are addressed. The volume ends with detailed instructions for using the reference sections, which are presented in Volume 2.
Volume 2, in an especially designed "user-friendly" format, includes the scoring systems for three alternate, functionally equivalent forms of Kohlberg's moral judgment interview. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This volume brings together two kinds of material: a discussion of theoretical issues that arise in relation to assessment of early development from a Piagetian perspective and a presentation of experience resulting from attempts to foster psychological development founded on such assessments.
The Introduction to this volume presents the background leading up to the construction of these ordinal Scales as well as an overview in greater detail of the individual chapters. The volume as a whole provides a summary and an evaluation of research that has been done using the Scales. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The study of cognitive development should move beyond grand metaphoric theories to the specification of patterns of data for each central developmental construct.
What Are Self-conscious Emotions?Some General Development ConsiderationsSelf-conscious Emotions Are Interpersonal, TooShame and GuiltEmbarrassmentPrideReferences
In this paper, I compare three developmental assessment systems, employed to score a set of 152 interviews of engineering students: the Perry Scoring System (W. G. Perry, 1970), the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System (T. L. Dawson, 2004, 1/31/03), and the Lexical Abstraction Assessment System (LAAS; T. L. Dawson & M. Wilson, in press). Overall, the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System and Perry Scoring System agree with one another within the parameters of interrater agreement commonly reported for either one of the systems, and the Perry system and the LAAS agree with one another about as well as the LAAS and the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System, upon which the LAAS is based.
In the present article, a view of children's emotional development is articulated that is consistent with, and which seems necessary to supplement, current neo-Piagetian theories of intellectual development. The basic assumption is that cognition and emotion are generated by different systems, each of which is necessary to normal functioning, and which together produce the structures that are characteristic of normal human development. On the basis of this assumption, it is hypothesized that any change in one system will have a concomitant or subsequent effect on the other. In particular, it is hypothesized that the arrival at a new cognitive-developmental stage will influence (A1) the types of emotions children are likely to experience, (A2) the types of situations in which they are likely to display these emotions, and (A3) the nature of the control structures they can develop for dealing with these situations and/or the emotions they elicit. At the same time, and reciprocally, it is hypothesized that exposure to certain specifiable emotional situations will have the potential to influence (B1) the amount of time children spend in epistemic activity, and hence their rate and terminal level of cognitive development, (B2) the particular directions in which they channel their epistemic activity, and hence their cognitive-developmental profile or their cognitive style, and (B3) the efficiency of their basic cognitive processes, either general or specific. The paper concludes with three preliminary tests of these hypotheses. The first study tests hypotheses A1 and A2 by examining the emotional responses of children at different cognitive stages to a situation where their mother ignores them for another child (either a newborn baby or a peer). The second study tests the same two hypotheses longitudinally, by examining infants' emotional reactions to a brief separation from their mother as they approach and then pass into a new stage of cognitive development. Finally, the third study tests hypotheses B2 and B3, by assessing the cognitive development of children who are either emotionally disturbed or normal, and who either have or have not experienced the death of a loved one at an early age.
Kohlberg’s moral stage scale is but one of a number of “Piagetian” developmental scales proposed during the latter part of this century. Kohlberg claimed that his moral stages fulfilled the criteria for “hard” Piagetian stages—invariant sequence, qualitative change, and structured wholeness. He also argued that his scoring system measures a dimension of thought with a unique structure. To explore these contentions, we compare the concepts that define Kohlbergian stages with those associated with orders of hierarchical complexity as determined with the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System, a generalized content-independent stage-scoring system. We conclude that the sequence of conceptual development specified by Kohlberg generally matches the sequence identified with the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System, and that contract and authority concepts identified with a methodology that employs the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System match the concepts that define theoretically analogous Kohlbergian stages above Kohlberg’s stage 2. However, we argue that Kohlberg’s stages 1 and 2 do not accurately describe the development of moral concepts in young children.
The potential contributions of quantitative methods are rarely discussed in the qualitative research and theoretical literatures in psychology. However, it is possible that some forms of quantitative research can fit theoretically within an interpretive framework and provide useful methodological resources for contextual, interpretive inquiries. Such research, which would examine dynamic modes of existence and lived experience in context, would extend more flexible and diverse methodological resources to researchers. This article describes how some types of quantitative research can perform this function and suggests several caveats regarding their use.
Since it was introduced to the English-speaking world in 1962, Lev Vygotsky's Thought and Language has become recognized as a classic foundational work of cognitive science. Its 1962 English translation must certainly be considered one of the most important and influential books ever published by the MIT Press. In this highly original exploration of human mental development, Vygotsky analyzes the relationship between words and consciousness, arguing that speech is social in its origins and that only as children develop does it become internalized verbal thought. In 1986, the MIT Press published a new edition of the original translation by Eugenia Hanfmann and Gertrude Vakar, edited by Vygotsky scholar Alex Kozulin, that restored the work's complete text and added materials to help readers better understand Vygotsky's thought. Kozulin also contributed an introductory essay that offered new insight into Vygotsky's life, intellectual milieu, and research methods. This expanded edition offers Vygotsky's text, Kozulin's essay, a subject index, and a new foreword by Kozulin that maps the ever-growing influence of Vygotsky's ideas.
L. Kohlberg (1969) argued that his moral stages captured a developmental sequence specific to the moral domain. To explore that contention, the author compared stage assignments obtained with the Standard Issue Scoring System (A. Colby & L. Kohlberg, 1987a, 1987b) and those obtained with a generalized content-independent stage-scoring system called the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System (T. L. Dawson, 2002a), on 637 moral judgment interviews (participants' ages ranged from 5 to 86 years). The correlation between stage scores produced with the 2 systems was .88. Although standard issue scoring and hierarchical complexity scoring often awarded different scores up to Kohlberg's Moral Stage 2/3, from his Moral Stage 3 onward, scores awarded with the two systems predominantly agreed. The author explores the implications for developmental research.
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Equilibration and intelligence: Individual variation in conservation development as a function of CA, MA and IQ. Unpublished doctoral dissertation
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