ABSTRACT
One of the fundamental postulates of the philosophy of science is that the methods of research should be appropriate to the nature of the objects of a study. This means that if the objects of a study-a person, group of people, community, or culture-are interpreted as composites of relatively independent entities which mechanistically infl uence each other, then the research design and methods for this study should differ from a case when the same objects are treated as systems that dialectically constitute each other through mutual interdependence. Therefore, it is important for empirical researchers to refl ect on the ways they think about the nature of the social, cultural, and psychological phenomena they want to investigate in order to choose an adequate methodology and methods. In order to conduct meaningful and productive research, scholars must explicitly articulate their theoretical assumptions about the objects of their investigation, hence demonstrating theoretical thinking . There are different theoretical accounts related to the understanding of culture, human psychological functioning, and their interactions, and the following chapter will analyze these perspectives and provide some guidelines for their utilization.
