Network pluralism in psychology: the perspective of polymethodology and transdisciplinarity

Abstract

The current transformations present in psychological science, on the one hand, affect its methodological and disciplinary status, on the other, they change the relationship with the current socio-cultural reality and everyday human life practices. The problem of integration of psychological knowledge arises again and is rethought at this new stage of psychology development. Opposing research orientations, such as methodological monism and methodological pluralism, methodological rigorism and methodological liberalism, offer different strategies for epistemic integration. However, from the standpoint of network pluralism, these orientations are seen as part of a unified process of cognition, where the dialectical relationships between them contribute to the achievement of integral knowledge. Flexible, networked, searchibly labile methodological strategies are coming to the aid of psychological science that seeks to integration of researches in an ontologically and epistemologically complicated world. In epistemological terms, there are polymethodologies and metatheoretical constructs that allow us to use many theories and approaches to solve a particular problem. The antinomy of incompleteness and the integrity of cognition is most effectively solved today by the network methodology. Network pluralism is a research position that supports a variety of psychological approaches, conceptual representations and theories, comprehended in the perspective of hermeneutical optics, the principle of coherence and with the ability of integration of polar attitudes in the ideal of holistic knowledge. The integration of psychological research takes place at different levels of the methodology of science: the philosophical and general scientific refers to a transdisciplinary approach that overcomes the disciplinary model of knowledge organization, replacing its problem-oriented version of the network; at the specific scientific level, the use of polymethodology leads to search methodological strategies, which are based on the approaches and methodologies available in the scientist’s arsenal; in the conceptual plan the metatheoretical constructs which are nowadays both a field of his free choice and personal responsibility are being processed here. The ability in cognitive activity to self-reflection, critical thinking and communicative rationality are important features-qualities of the modern researcher, which complete his professionalism and socio-cultural competence.