Humanistic and scientific research pursue opposite goals of case understanding versus theory building

Evidence

“Humanistic” research uses insights idiographically to account for peculiarities in the thick texture of complex concrete cases, whereas “scientific” research uses these insights nomothetically to study an abstract general relation as it manifests itself across a wide range of cases whose peculiarities tend to cancel each other out. The idiographic humanistic approach brings theory into confrontation with empirical observations better to understand the specific case; the nomothetic scientific approach confronts them better to develop the theory. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 304 (#expands, via linked claim)

Many forms of scientific and engineering methodologies can be formulated as different combinations of the three approaches. Figure 1.1 characterizes these as levels of the abstraction process as well as realizing abstractions back towards practice. Abstraction means getting rid of details that are not essential for modelling or understanding a specific object or principle, and concretization (realization) is the opposite process of adding details in order to approach reality or practical construction of a system. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 103 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Humanistic research explains particular cases while scientific research develops general theory. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 304; Scientific and narrative thought are evaluated by different criteria; Abstracting away details and concretizing them frame scientific research as one cycle — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 103 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Humanistic research explains particular cases while scientific research develops general theory. #expands (0.97) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 304
• Abstracting away details and concretizing them frame scientific research as one cycle #complicates (0.72) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 103