1. Lectures at University of Salento Lecce, December 13, 2010 Lecture 2 FOUNDATIONS OF CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY: What is methodology? Jaan Valsiner K-Group www.kitchenseminar.orgwww.kitchenseminar.org 1

2. 2 OBJECTIVE KNOWLEDGE IS CREATED SUBJECTIVELY!

3. 3 YOU MAY HAVE ENCOUNTERED THE IDEA THAT “PSYCHOLOGY USES NUMBERS” but that idea is not usable in CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY WHY?

4. FUTILITY OF MANY “FIGHTS” ABOUT METHODOLOGY: -- “QUANTITATIVE” versus “QUALITATIVE” methods (and their “cocktail”– “MIXED METHODS”) -- “OBJECTIVE” versus “SUBJECTIVE” methods --“STANDARDIZED” versus “NON-STANDARDIZED” methods -- creating the “RIGHT” and “RELIABLE” categorization (when the phenomena are inherently fuzzy– undergoing development) 4

5. 5 “CUTTING” THIS CYCLE IN MULTIPLE WAYS GIVES US ALL EXISTING VERSIONS OF “RESEARCH” IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES METHODOLOGY is a PROCESS of KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION

6. 6 INDUCTIVE EMPIRICISM

7. 7 INDUCTIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL EMPIRICISM

8. 8 PHILOSOPHICAL PHENOMENOLOGY

9. 9 PHENOMENOLOGICAL THEORIZING

10. 10 ALL THESE “CUT” VERSIONS OF THE CYCLE  GIVE US LIMITED EVIDENCE  ELIMINATE THE PROCESS NATURE OF RESEARCH

11. 11 FOUR “FRAMES OF REFERENCE” IN PSYCHOLOGY: INTER-INDIVIDUAL: How A differs from B? INTRA-INDIVIDUAL: What is in A? INDIVIDUAL-ECOLOGICAL: How A relates with its surrounding (non-A) INDIVIDUAL-SOCIOECOLOGICAL: How A relates with its environment (non-A) under GUIDANCE

12. CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY METHODS are based on the adoption of the INDIVIDUAL- SOCIOECOLOGICAL REFERENCE FRAME PENVIRONMENT GUIDANCE BY OTHERS: immediate and mediated GUIDANCE BY SELF: selection and transformation of “environmental influences” 12

13. DATA ARE SIGNS (not given facts, but constructed/derived presentations) 13

14. THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF “MEASUREMENT” OF ASSUMED PROPERTIES OF THE OBJECT IN THE CASE OF MULTIPLY DETERMINED DYNAMIC SYSTEM 14

15. THE CORE OF CULTURAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS CONSTRUCTION— the MEANING BLOCK and the ANALYSIS OF TRAJECTORIES 15

16. HOW THE CATALYST WORKS: C binds with A and B, leading to their mutual binding (A-B) and recreation of itself. 16

17. A B Goal orientation S MEANINGBLOCKMEANINGBLOCK TRIGGERED MICROGENETIC PROCESS GOAL REACHED after ambivalence GOAL ABANDONED and return to starting point EXIT FROM THE SITUATION PSYCHOLOGY’S GENERAL EXPERIMENTAL METHOD FOR STUDY OF HUMAN BEINGS: The Researcher introduces conditions that—through their meaning— make the achievement of the goal S of reaching B complicated. The Subject’s trajectory of efforts after encountering the MEANING BLOCK becomes the crucial empirical data (microgenetic recording) 17 HISTORICAL ROOTS: “Wurzburg School” and Aktualgenese (Krueger, Volkelt, Sander)

18. MeDoSt : Method of Double Stimulation (Vygotsky) 18

19. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE IS OBTAINABLE FROM SINGLE SPECIMENS (if selected strategically and studied systemically) move to IDIOGRAPHIC SCIENCE 19

20. 20 IN TERMS OF CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS METHODOLOGY:  Search for CULTURAL MEANS OF MAINTENANCE of established new formations (e.g., monuments, myths, songs, etc)  Search for CULTURAL MEANS OF ERADICATION of an emergent formation (e.g., prescriptions against making distinctions– Hutu/Tutsi ethnicity unmentionable in Rwanda after genocide-- compare with USA- APA “gender rules”-- “he or she”)  Study of BIFURCATION MOMENTS in the emergence of new cultural forms and all that on the basis of SINGLE SPECIMENS Warren Thorngate– LAW OF SMALL NUMBERS: “If you cannot understand a phenomenon in the single case, you cannot understand it in a sample– FIRST ANALYZE, THEN AGGREGATE” (in contrast with– FIRST AGGREGATE, THEN ANALYZE– the socially accepted norm in contemporary social sciences = “evidence based X”)

21. 21 CENTRAL BASIS for move to IDIOGRAPHIC SCIENCE– PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA ARE NON-ERGODIC  no isomorphism between intra-individual and inter-individual variability

22. 22 YEARBOOK OF IDIOGRAPHIC SCIENCE– Sergio Salvatore, Italy, Main Editor Vol 1-3 (2008, 2009, 2010) by Giorgio Fireira Vol 4-… Information Age Publishers, USA

23. 23 SPECIFIC IDIOGRAPHIC UNITS OF ANALYSIS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES (constructing the future in irreversible time– TEM models– Tatsuya Sato) TEM= “Trajectory Equifinality Model”– minimal unit of analysis is here: REAL (a) AND IMAGINARY (b, c, d) PARTS ARE OF SIMILAR STATUS IN THIS UNIT!!!

24. 24 THE FATE OF TRAJECTORIES OVER TIME– Aleksei Severtsov’s model (1929) of evolution through IDIOADAPTATION and AROMORPHOSIS AROMORPHOSIS: new forms emerge in relations with environment and stay when the demands are no longer present IDIOADAPTATION: new forms emerge in relations with environment and disappear when the demands are no longer present

25. 25 GENERALIZATION THIS IS HOW GENERAL KNOWLEDGE BECOMES OBTAINED IN CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY-the power of idiographic science

26. 26 FINAL SUMMARY: 1.CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY is a contemporary movement (1980s onwards to today, and… ?) that brings together psychological, anthropological, sociological and historical orientations within a general model of open systems. From that focus it links with similar tendencies in other sciences– biology particularly– to look at the world through some lens of dynamic systems. 2.CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY (in any of its forms) focuses on the FUNCTIONAL INTERCONNECTEDNESS of “the social” and “the personal” in the contexts of living. Some versions of cultural psychology attempt to maintain the focus on IRREVERSIBILITY OF TIME in their schemes. These versions are part of DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE 3.CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY liberates the methodology from being a set of socially set imperatives about “right” or “wrong” methods to use (or not use), into restoration of the classic notion of METHODOLOGY as a holistic system of knowledge construction where the creation and use of methods is subordinated to the research questions.