S u m m a r y

 

Perttula J (1996)

Description and interpretation as psychological research strategies

Psykologia 31/1: (9-18). Rauma ISSN 0355-1067.

 

What do psychologists do when they are trying to reach the subjective reality of another person? Are psychological theories necessary, useful, needless or even harmful in this work? In this article these questions are approached according to the concepts of description and interpretation. Description is connected with Husserlian descriptive phenomenology and interpretation with Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology.

The methods of descriptive and hermeneutic phenomenology have similar basic properties. Both the phenomenological reduction and the hermeneutic circle are seen as the methodical processes which proceed toward the differentiation of the psychologist's and the other person's subjective reality.

Description means staying as strictly as possible within the evidence given and interpretation means going beyond the evidence given. Interpretation is intentional when the psychologist thinks according to a certain psychological theory and unintentional when the psychologist cannot reflect on all the preconceptions about the phenomenon under study. According to these definitions description always includes some interpretation. Nevertheless, it is argued that description is a significant research strategy in trying to reach the subjective reality of another person. It concerns all scientific research and clinical work which aims at deepening the self-awareness of another person.

 

Key words:

Description, interpretation, descriptive phenomenology, hermeneutic phenomenology, subjective reality, qualitative research.

 

Juha Perttula, Lic. Psych., Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, PO Box 35, FIN-40351 Jyväskylä, Finland.