Murdoch Philosophy Research Seminars Semester 2, 2009

Lived Experience and Empirical Data: Personality Psychology and Discursive Psychology as Competing forms of Empiricism

Anita Williams (Psychology, MU):

Abstract:

Personality psychologists understand the best theoretical model of personality as the one which best fits the empirical evidence. Discursive psychology, a critical approach used within psychology, asserts that research into social action should not proceed from theoretical models, such as models of personality. To state that the theoretical framework is built from the empirical evidence or that investigations should avoid theoretical assumptions is to assume that knowledge can be gained from experience alone. The problem with assuming knowledge is gained through experience alone is twofold. First, we make the mistake of overlooking that as part of a coherent research project, our research methodology is a set of logically coherent statements about the best way to investigate our research topic which is based upon pure theory. Second, we understand our formal concepts of experience as if they are real parts of concrete experience. If we continue to assume that empirical observation is the only means by which to establish knowledge in psychology, we are left with a method of investigation that strips out the meaningfulness of our lives by replacing concrete experience with formal categories of experience.

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