David D. Clarke – författare

Can qualitative and quantitative methods be combined effectively in psychology? What are the practical and theoretical issues involved? Should different criteria be used to judge qualitative and quantitative research?The acceptance of qualitative research methods in psychology has lead to a split between qualitative and quantitative methods and has raised questions about how best to assess the validity of research practice. While the two approaches have traditionally been seen as competing paradigms, more recently, researchers have begun to argue that the divide is artificial.Mixing Methods in Psychology looks in detail at the problems involved in attempting to reconcile qualitative and quantitative methods both within and across subjects. All angles of the debate are discussed, covering areas asdiverse as health, education, social, clinical and economic psychology. The contributors, who are some of the leading figures in the field, present theoretical and methodological guidance as well as practical examples of how quantitative and qualitative methods can be fruitfully combined. By aiming to bridge the gap between the two methods, this book reveals how each can inform the other to produce more accurate theories and models of human behaviour.This groundbreaking text will be essential reading for students and researchers wishing to combine methods, or for anyone who simply wants to get a better understanding of the debate.

Psychology so relies upon ‘experimental’ work that first-hand experience of important life-events is held to be worthless. In limiting itself to physically defined, ‘objective’ behaviours, such as pressing a switch or picking up a toy, the discipline ignores larger units of action like moving house, adopting a child or committing a crime.In this book, originally published in 1985, what the authors mean by actions are the real-life units and categories of ‘things people do’: the things that would figure in a diary, a novel, an obituary or a casual conversation. Systems are the complex entities in the world, like animals, crops, the weather or the economy, that form part of everyday human concerns or touch upon them. It is an advanced area of enquiry which cannot be understood without reference to many other academic disciplines.Action Systems introduces students to ideas and methods from the behavioural sciences, the philosophical and micro-sociological traditions (ethogenics, symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology), linguistics and structuralism, and cybernetics, artificial intelligence, computing and mathematical modelling.Despite its wide range, this is an introductory sourcebook for ideas, with lively illustrations and concise bibliographies. It is appropriate for students pursuing communication studies courses as well as introductory courses in the behavioural sciences.