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Gulliver’s Eggs: Why Methods are not an Issue of Qualitative Research in Cultural Psychology

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Abstract

The future of qualitative methods regards the kind of object cultural psychology is interested and the kind of questions it can ask. I propose that the object should be experiencing, understood as a complex whole, consisting of lived-by action and counter-action, that is contextual inter-action with the world in the form of an experiencing subject and otherness. The kind of questions cultural psychology can ask is instead related to the epistemological status attributed to both researcher and participant. Probably few scholars such as Vygotsky, Piaget and Lewin understood to what extent experiencing is always changing, because the relationship between mind, alterity and culture is co-generative. This also implies a relativization and a decentralization of the psychology’s perspective. Finally, I provide some examples from the history of psychology and some suggestions to work at the level of such complexity by using methods that can work with complex objects such as products of human activity (e.g., art, literature, architecture, etc.).

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Notes

  1. The term “state” could sound a bit old-fashioned. Nevertheless, only in year 2013, PsychINFO Database reports 342 original peer-reviewed journal articles using this term in the abstract. It is used of course with different meanings in very each area of psychology (e.g., Schizophrenia & Psychotic States; Health & Mental Health Services; Promotion & Maintenance of Health & Wellness; Educational Administration & Personnel; Social Processes & Social Issues; Professional Personnel Attitudes & Characteristics; Curriculum & Programs & Teaching Methods; Professional Education & Training; Classroom Dynamics & Student Adjustment & Attitudes; Behavior Disorders & Antisocial Behavior; Community & Social Services). Even though this is just a superficial observation, it tells us that the term is still in wide use.

  2. Subject’s reaction time in seconds.

  3. This is probably the first historical mention of the so-called aha-experience.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been funded by the Marie Curie IEF-2012 grant “EPICS. Epistemology in psychological science, the heritage of Giambattista Vico and the cultural psychology” at Aalborg University (Denmark).

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  1. Marie Curie Fellow, Niels Bohr Centre for Cultural Psychology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Luca Tateo

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  1. Luca Tateo
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Correspondence to Luca Tateo.

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Tateo, L. Gulliver’s Eggs: Why Methods are not an Issue of Qualitative Research in Cultural Psychology. Integr. psych. behav. 49, 187–201 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-015-9296-4

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