Pragmatic Case Studies as a Source of Unity in Applied Psychology

Abstract

To unify or not to unify applied psychology: That is the question. In this article we review pendulum swings in the historical efforts to answer this question—from a comprehensive, positivist, “top-down,” deductive yes between the 1930s and the early 1960s, to a postmodern no since then. A rationale and proposal for a limited, “bottom-up,” inductive yes in applied psychology is then presented, using a case-based paradigm that integrates both positivist and postmodern themes and components. This paradigm is labeled pragmatic psychology and, its specific use of case studies, the Pragmatic Case Study Method (PCS Method). We call for the creation of peer-reviewed journal databases of pragmatic case studies as a foundational source of unifying applied knowledge in our discipline. As one example, the potential of the PCS Method for unifying different angles of theoretical regard is illustrated in an area of applied psychology, psychotherapy, via the case of Mrs. B. The article then turns to the broader historical and epistemological arguments for the unifying nature of the PCS Method in both applied and basic psychology.