Scientific Traditions as a Mechanism of Continuity of Psychological Cognition. Part 2. Problems, Approaches and Prospects for Research

Abstract

The authors’ main attention is focused on current problems of studying continuity and scientific traditions in psychology. Special attention is paid to the characteristics of promising directions for studying the traditions of domestic psychological science: taking into account when studying the traditions of scientific developments on the generation of knowledge, primarily tacit; analysis of the role of individual personal variables, including ideological guidelines, cognitive attitudes, life values, features of the professional development of the researcher himself in the process of selection of knowledge acquiring the status of tradition; study of traditions as the foundations and distinctive features of scientific schools in psychology. A model for studying scientific traditions in psychology is proposed, based on ideas about three aspects of the existence of science (knowledge, social institution, cognitive activity) and different views on the understanding of the term “tradition” (according to E. Shatsky) — functional, objective and subjective. It is concluded that the preservation and development of scientific traditions is the responsibility of not only the scientific community as a whole, but also personally of each researcher involved in scientific creativity in the field of psychology.