We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
More than twenty years ago I applied Kuhn's (1970a) concept of paradigms to cross-cultural psychology (Eckensberger, 1979). This early paper was elaborated and extended at several later occasions (Eckensberger, 1995; Eckensberger and Burgard, 1983; Eckensberger and Keller, 1998; Eckensberger, Krewer and Kasper, 1984). In these contributions different paradigms in cross-cultural psychology were not just distinguished; rather cross-cultural psychology was explicitly used as a framework for the evaluation of existing paradigms in psychology in general. This earlier work addressed not only cross-cultural psychologists, but all psychologists – as does the present chapter.
After introducing some distinctions in philosophy of science to provide a basis for my position, discussion of the usefulness of paradigms and recent trends in psychology leads to the specification of four perspectives (paradigms). The elucidation of their interrelationships leads to my conclusion that cultural psychology appears to be a ‘metatheory’, and not just a sub-branch of psychology, and that the ethic of respected complementarity in psychology is essential for a more complete and differentiated understanding of human beings.
Introductory remarks on philosophy of science
Kuhn's approach: some comments
In psychology the term ‘paradigm’ has become a part of everyday language, since T. S.Kuhn (1970a) published his short but influential Structure of scientific revolutions.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
