ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relations between various philosophies that have been traditionally associated with quantitative and qualitative research, respectively. We describe the quantitative-qualitative dichotomy and the related “incompatibility thesis” (Howe, 1988) in regard to the viability of a tools-based methodology. We then offer arguments against the coherence of the view that quantitative and qualitative methods are inherently at odds with one another because they are wedded to incompatible philosophical foundations. We reject the idea that adopting either qualitative or quantitative methods, or a mixture thereof, necessarily commits a researcher (or discipline) to a given philosophy of science (e.g., positivism, constructivism). Rather than constraining classes of research methods to specific philosophical commitments, we make an appeal to a critically reflective pragmatic methodological framework for psychology.
