One can ask two different kinds of questions with regard to the topics of study in psychology as well as in other sciences. One can ask for the phenomenal characteristics of psychological units or events, for example, how many kinds of feelings can be qualitatively differentiated from one another or which characteristics describe an experience of a voluntary act. Aside from this are the questions asking for the why, for the cause and the effect, for the conditional-genetic interrelations. For example, one can ask: Under which conditions has been a decision made and which are the specific psychological effects which follow this decision? The depiction of phenomenal characteristics is usually characterized as “description”, the depiction of causal relationships as “explanation.”
Kurt Zadek Lewin Connected to the Carolinas
Source
Kurt Lewin (1927). "Gesetz und experiment in der Psychologie" [Law and experiment in psychology]. in: Symposion, Vol 1, p. 375-421. Translated by and cited in: Kurt Kreppner "On the Generation of Data in the Study of Social Interaction1" in: Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa Vol 17, nr. 2, p. 109.
- year
- 1927
- locator
- p. 375-421
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“One can ask two different kinds of questions with regard to …” Kurt Zadek Lewin. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-4D0B03EBF4. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/4d0b03ebf4
More from Kurt Zadek Lewin
Accordingly, three fundamental types of the conflict situation are possible. i. The individual stands between two positive valences of approximately equal strength (Fig. 7). An instance of this sort is that of Buridan's ass starving between two stacks of hay. In general this type of conflict situation is solved with relative ease. It is usually a condition of labile equilibrium.
At the present we have no adequate scientific method for representing the psychological life span. In accord with the general methods of psychology, the study of environmental influences began with classification and statistics... they gave us excellent descriptions of the home environment. The method of representation is partly akin to that of the novelist i.e., one trying to make as lifelike picture of the situation as possible by choosing expressive words and bringing out significant traits with examples. In general, the descriptions that have been made valuable to science have not been those made by scientific methods. Where theoretical concepts have been introduced with the concrete description, they often stand out as something alien. In stead of scientific descriptions they are nothing more than speculative interpretation.
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