Scientific-Biographical Method in Psychological and Legal Research: from Retrospective and Multivariate Analysis to Methodological Tools for Quality Assessment

The purpose of the article is to determine the scientific and applied potential of the biographical method, and its capabilities in solving a number of methodological and applied problems in the field of psychology and law. Scientific argumentation is based on the use of the key elements of substantive, retrospective, multifactorial, axiological and comparative analysis. An analysis of the phases of personal and social development is presented, each of which determines the composition and nature of the impact on the individual or social relations, depending on the specifics of their basic features in socially sensitive areas. The methodological indicators are identified that are correlates of the scientific and theoretical significance of modern research. The biographical method acts as an independent genre of studying the works of sciences that are significant for these sciences, and as a method of displaying the characteristics of the human factor and social relations. The method is aimed at solving an important methodological problem about the importance of the personality and social relations in the development of science. The applied significance of the method lies in the fact that it acts as an indicator of the quality and as the methodological tools of scientific research in the field of psychology and law.