Why, what and how? – Questions for psychological research in medicine

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose with this paper is to make an analysis of some different ways of putting questions in the field of medical psychology. METHOD: Four questions are raised regarding the scientific development of knowledge related to human beings, with special emphasis on the fields of psychology and medical psychology. Such questions concerning the world differ from one another and are consequently investigated and answered in different ways. CONCLUSIONS: Psychology includes aspects of how and why human beings feel, think, act and appraise as they do, and the extent to which they do so. Two complementary pairs of concepts are introduced to aid in understanding this scientific development of knowledge: nomothetic versus ideographic knowledge and synchronic versus diachronic knowledge. These dimensions of special interest are combined in a figure which can be used as a tool for analysis. Psychology concerns not only finding explanations for psychological phenomena or psychological explanations for physiological, social or cultural phenomena. It also concerns describing, characterising and understanding the content of these phenomena and the meaning they have for the individual. Through these kinds of questions we learn more about the general, specific and unique aspects of persons, as well as of scientific knowledge.

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