Hi, David. The anthropologists Ryles and Geertz (e.g.,The Interpretation of Cultures, 1973) speak of "thick description" in the social sciences, and this may be a good place to start. Within psychotherapy research, my own field of descriptive familiarity, Elliott among others (Elliott, R. (1984). A discovery-oriented approach to significant change events in psychotherapy: Interpersonal process recall and comprehensive process analysis (Chapter 8, pp. 249-286). In L. N. Rice & L. S. Greenberg (Eds.), Patterns of change Intensive analysis of psychotherapy process. New York: Guilford) has made an argument for "discovery-oriented" research that includes description as its first aspirational domain. Don Polkinghorne also makes this argument very nicely in his treatise on methodology: Polkinghorne, D. E. (1983). Methodology for the human sciences. Albany: NY: State University of New York Press.
Hope some of that helps, Mark Kunkel Univ West Georgia -----Original Message----- From: David Epstein [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 3:36 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Subject: in defense of descriptive data? I'm revising an invited commentary that I cowrote for a psychopharm journal, and I've made what I think is a self-evident point: that an animal model of a clinical phenomenon requires good descriptive data about the phenomenon itself. So I've got a passage that states: "From both ends--preclinical and clinical--the homology between drug-seeking behavior in rodents and humans will need continued elucidation. One obstacle to that elucidation is the point of view wherein terms such as _descriptive_ are used pejoratively. We believe that science begins with good descriptions, and for relapse [to drug addiction], there is a great deal more describing to be done." [I go on to suggest real-time prospective assessment of the precipitants and process of relapse, as Saul Shiffman has done with tobacco addicts.] Can the TIPS collective brain point me toward a source that might supplement my simple declaration that "We believe"? Searches of Medline, PsycInfo, and google haven't turned up anything obvious. thanks, David Epstein [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
