ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines two primary elements of a holistic approach to empirical and experimental methods. The first is the assumption that theory, method, and procedure must be carried out as an indissoluble whole and the second is the assumption that holistic analysis must operate within particular integrated systems, fields, or units of relations. A holistic approach to empirical methods requires, first, that the interconnection between theory, method, and procedure be preserved, or perhaps re-established. The steady narrowing of field in psychology, however, has brought with it a compartmentalization of these research enterprises, such that the development of one is carried out often entirely independent of the other. Though Kurt Lewin believed in an independent science, he foresaw the difficulties inherent in an increasingly anti-theoretical approach to psychology. In fact, he consistently asserted "the necessity for developing better concepts and higher levels of theory".
