Disentangling Paradigm and Method Can Help Bring Qualitative Research to Post-Positivist Psychology and Address the Generalizability Crisis

Abstract

For decades, psychological research has heavily favored quantitative over qualitative methods. One reason for this imbalance is the perception that quantitative methods follow from a post-positivist paradigm, which guides mainstream psychology, whereas qualitative methods follow from a con- structivist paradigm. However, methods and paradigms are independent, and embracing qualitative methods within mainstream psychology is one way of addressing the generalizability crisis.

Reproducibility, Diversity, and the Crisis of Inference in Psychology

“…It has been long known and documented that psychology has relied on a thin slice of humanity in generating its knowledge-primarily the White, American/Western European middle class-yet it treats that knowledge as universal and true for all of humanity (Arnett, 2008;Graham, 1992;Guthrie, 1976;Hartmann et al, 2013;Henrich et al, 2010;Roberts et al, 2020). The quest for universals can be traced back through the history of empirical psychology and the field's persistent physics envy that has both downplayed cultural/contextual factors and valorized quantitative methods (Syed, 2021a;Syed & McLean, 2021). As part of the open science movement, however, there have been increasing attempts to move away from this kind of thinking and attempt to build a more contextualized field.…”

“…That all makes sense, as in many ways that is where the most potentially "exciting" and "sciencey" work happens. However, our obsession with identifying explanations is a manifestation of our physics envy, which has led us to prematurely emphasize explanation without having spent sufficient time and attention to observation and description, which are the necessary foundations to any adequate explanatory account (Scheel et al, 2021;Syed & McLean, 2021). How can we explain phenomena that we do not fully understand?…”

Improving the Credibility of Empirical Legal Research: Practical Suggestions for Researchers, Journals and Law Schools

“…130 Sensitivity to these epistemological differences has sometimes been lacking during social science's credibility revolution. 131 However, even though many reforms are grounded in positivist frameworks, ongoing research seeks to translate some new practices to qualitative research methods.…”