What are the assumptions of psychologists who use qualitative research methodology and what are the alternatives to treating psychology as a natural science?

This chapter describes the different assumptions of the different types of use of qualitative methods, and explains approaches to psychology where psychology is treated as something that is different from a natural science. Social constructionism provided a major impetus to the development of qualitative methods in academic psychology. It did so because of an explicit theoretical rationale that supports qualitative methods as an end in themselves. The term social constructionism is used in several different senses and is used by both psychologists and sociologists. A major contribution of social constructionism is that it promoted a form of methodology, qualitative methodology, that is accepted as one of the methodologies available to psychologists. Critical psychologists support the general criticism and solution provided by social constructionists i.e., the rigorous, positivistic, quantitative methodology so beloved by many psychologists should be replaced by a more humane, qualitative methodology.