Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Positions and Position Changes in Psychology. A Comment on Texts by Jochen Fahrenberg and Jürgen Rost

Abstract

This introduction moderates two contributions to the debate on standards of social research, each written by a representative of psychology. The two authors come from different methodological backgrounds: One represents a quantitative methodology—the other has (among others) an interpretative-psychological (qualitative) background. Their appraisal of recent movements in qualitative social research is surprisingly diverse: friendly and commendatory vs. sharply criticizing. This introduction compares the two positions, places them into disciplinary structures of psychology at German universities, and provides a heuristic contextualization of these positions in Yin-Yang Philosophy. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0302448

Keywords

• qualitative and quantitative methods
• traditions and tradition changes in scientific disciplines
• methodology of psychology
• interdisciplinary communication
• Yin-Yang Philosophy