Complementary research methods in humanistic and transpersonal psychology: A case for methodological pluralism.

Abstract

Although experiences of positive psychological states such as self-actualization, love, happiness, meaning, authenticity, and spiritual connection are of interest to a number of psychologists, they are also difficult to study with rigorous scientific methods. This article argues that a complementary approach, or methodological pluralism, is appropriate and adequate for such study. The underpinnings of two approaches to psychological research methods, natural science and human science, are reviewed. Although these two approaches typically lead to different research strategies, quantitative and qualitative methods respectively, they have common values in assessing the truth-value of research claims, consistency of research findings, and neutrality of scientific conclusions. Three examples of research using complementary approaches are given: life satisfaction, meditation, and nature-based peak experiences.Among the questions of interest to psychologists are those having to do with optimal mental health, self-actualization, love, happiness, meaning, authenticity, altruism, awe, a sense of the mystical and the sacred, and the so-called ''farther reaches'' of healthy human experience (Maslow, 1971). As well, these interests may extend to an array of related difficulties and challenges, such as apathy, alienation, existential emptiness, despair, and transpersonal ''pathologies.'' These, and many related concepts, share a quality of being difficult to quantify and capture for research purposes. Of course, such hard-to-define topics have been a focus of psychology off and on since

An Autophenomenographical Investigation of Nature Connection: A Transpersonal Focus

“…Davis argues that the notion of adequacy means that the research method used is (a) appropriate for understanding the explored phenomenon, (b) responsive to the nature of the phenomenon explored, and (c) open to critical evaluation. He suggests the following three measures of adequate phenomenological research: neutrality, reliability, and trustworthiness (Davis, 2009). Adequacy to one side, it must be remembered that conclusions of phenomenological studies can only ever be interpretive possibilities open to public scrutiny (Seamon, 2000).…”

“…The issue of bias (or conversely, the drive for neutrality) associated with subjective experience and interpretation has been a core challenge for phenomenologists, in terms of legitimizing their research findings to the wider community, especially to conventionally trained, positivist researchers (Seamon, 2000). Davis (2009) argues that neutrality is possible in qualitative research through . Confirmability-the research conclusions can be evaluated for their depth, usefulness, and faithfulness to the participant's experiential descriptions; .…”

Studying spirituality scientifically: reflections, considerations, recommendations

“…(d) Adopt the stance of methodological pluralism (e.g. Davis 2009) wherein both quantitative and qualitative methodologies are used in a complementary manner within a single study. Finally, (e) keep in mind that spirituality can have both positive and negative influences on human functioning.…”

Ayurvedic Psychology: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science

“…Through embracing methodological pluralism in research, transpersonal psychology has successfully studied such areas as human potential, higher states of consciousness, authenticity, and spirituality (Braud & Anderson, 1998;Davis, 2009). Ayurveda, because of its foundation in spiritual transformation, may similarly benefit from research methods that elicit deeper facets of human experience and consciousness.…”