On the Development of Concepts in Modern Russian Psychology

Abstract

The article is a response to the publications of A.L. Zhuravlev and E.A. Sergienko, inviting to a discussion on the development of psychological concepts. The view on the correlation of network and system methodology is specified. It is argued that the systematic approach cannot become a thing of the past, since the principle of consistency is one of the methodological prerequisites of psychological science. However, the era of non-classical psychology with its monopoly on the dominant discourse and the correct approach, the only true methodology, the idea of an invariable hierarchy of concepts, is becoming the past. The configuration of the ratios of network and system methodology in psychological research is mobile, changing depending on the chosen perspective and the problem being solved. The contribution of scientists from the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences to the development of an optimal model that combines the positions of network and system methodology is noted. The differentiation of concepts based on the levels of methodology of science is discussed, in accordance with which philosophical categories, general scientific and interdisciplinary concepts, specific scientific (general psychological and sectoral) concepts and metaphorical constructs are distinguished. This kind of analysis and development of psychological concepts in themselves change the model of scientific knowledge, since they create not only a conceptual, but also a theoretical network, where different approaches, previously ignoring or opposing each other at earlier stages of the development of science, become mutually complementary parts of the whole psychological science. produce a more subtle understanding of multidimensional psychological reality. The objectivity of this trend in the general context of the evolution of science is confirmed by the growth of agency and self-reflexivity of Russian scientists, expressed in work on psychological concepts, spontaneously arising in various research projects, psychological schools and institutions.