The place of words and numbers in psychiatric research

Falissard, B and Révah, A and Yang, S and Fagot-Largeault, A (2013) The place of words and numbers in psychiatric research. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, 8 (1).

Preview	PDF Published Version Available under License : See the attached license file. Download (304kB) | Preview
	Plain Text (licence) Available under License : See the attached license file. Download (1kB)

Abstract

In recent decades, there has been widespread debate in the human and social sciences regarding the compatibility and the relative merits of quantitative and qualitative approaches in research. In psychiatry, depending on disciplines and traditions, objects of study can be represented either in words or using two types of mathematization. In the latter case, the use of mathematics in psychiatry is most often only local, as opposed to global as in the case of classical mechanics. Relationships between these objects of study can in turn be explored in three different ways: 1/ by a hermeneutic process, 2/ using statistics, the most frequent method in psychiatric research today, 3/ using equations, i.e. using mathematical relationships that are formal and deterministic. The 3 ways of representing entities (with language, locally with mathematics or globally with mathematics) and the 3 ways of expressing the relationships between entities (using hermeneutics, statistics or equations) can be combined in a cross-tabulation, and nearly all nine combinations can be described using examples. A typology of this nature may be useful in assessing which epistemological perspectives are currently dominant in a constantly evolving field such as psychiatry, and which other perspectives still need to be developed. It also contributes to undermining the overly simplistic and counterproductive beliefs that accompany the assumption of a Manichean " quantitative/qualitative" dichotomy. Systematic examination of this set of typologies could be useful in indicating new directions for future research beyond the quantitative/qualitative divide. © 2013 Falissard et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

---

Share

Citation/Export:	Select format... Citation - Text Citation - HTML Endnote BibTex Dublin Core OpenURL MARC (ISO 2709) METS MODS EP3 XML Reference Manager Refer
Social Networking:	Share |

---

Details

Item Type:	Article
Status:	Published
Creators/Authors:	Creators Email Pitt Username ORCID Falissard, B Révah, A Yang, S Fagot-Largeault, A
Date:	18 November 2013
Date Type:	Publication
Journal or Publication Title:	Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine
Volume:	8
Number:	1
DOI or Unique Handle:	10.1186/1747-5341-8-18
Schools and Programs:	School of Medicine > Psychiatry
Refereed:	Yes
Date Deposited:	02 Dec 2016 18:25
Last Modified:	29 Jan 2019 15:56
URI:	http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/29642

---

Metrics

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Altmetric.com

---

Actions (login required)

View Item