Abstract

CHAVARRIA-GONZALEZ, María Celina. La dicotomía cuantitativo/cualitativo, falsos dilemas en la investigación social. Actual. psicol. [online]. 2011, vol.25, n.112, pp. 1-35. ISSN 0258-6444.

A discussion of the quantitative-qualitative dichotomy (QQD) is approached from the framework of paradigms, as the products of human conscience and historically-situated practices. Different versions of paradigms are discussed in the light of 20th Century Physics. These prompt us to envision a necessary change of paradigm, both on ontological, epistemological, and axiological grounds. The need to re-introduce a historical-cultural and trans-disciplinary vision, whereby human beings reconstruct themselves in the process of transforming their world, is stressed. An approach towards ontological and epistemological complexity is advocated, whereby the QQD is itself analyzed as spurious. It is argued that attempts to bridge a non-existent gap be directed to placing emphasis in the conceptual pondering of methodology, regardless of its status as quantitative or qualitative, in a multi-referential or multi-method, rather than a mixed-methods approach. The latter term is deemed epistemologically confusing.

Keywords : Complexity; historical-cultural; quantitative-qualitative dichotomy; mixed methods research (MMR); multi-methods research (MMR).

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