Orientation to Inquiry in a Reflective Professional Psychology: (SUNY series, Alternatives in Psychology)

This book approaches professional inquiry in psychology from a perspective that integrates research and practice and prepares students for the diversity of methods employed in the field. It examines a broad range of models and methods of inquiry in both research and practice and provides a framework for linking issues of knowledge to the special context of professional psychology. Guided by a vision of psychology as a self-critical discipline and a reflective profession, Hoshmand provides a pluralistic perspective on inquiry, including alternative paradigms, for the professional education of clinical, counseling, consulting, and other practicing psychologists as reflective scientist-practitioners. She gives special attention to the cognitive development and knowledge processes of the professional and offers suggestions for professional training and mechanisms of teaching and learning.

Table of Contents:
Preface 1. A Reflective Professional Psychology Personal Reflections on the Profession Science, Practice, and Professional Psychology Issues of Method Choice Personal Knowing and Professional Worldviews Questions for Reflective Study Suggested Additional Learning 2. Foundations and Issues of Psychological Inquiry Setting the Stage for an Overview Models of Knowledge in Historical Perspective A Summary of Related Arguments and Issues Professional Inquiry in the Postmodern Age Suggested Additional Learning 3. Professional Inquiry in Context Cultural and Historical Embeddedness of Psychological Science and Practice The Sociopolitical Context of Professional Inquiry Our Inquiry Contract with Human Subjects Summarizing the Implications for Professional Inquiry Suggested Additional Learning 4. Ideas, Conceptual Systems, and Core Beliefs From Concepts to Systems of Ideas The Uses of Conceptual Tools in Professional Inquiry Core Commitments and Root Metaphors in Professional Psychology Metalevel Frameworks Suggested Additional Learning 5. Paradigms of Research Understanding Paradigms Unraveling Paradigm Debates Conventional Paradigms and Extensions of Experimental Methodology Narrative and Hermeneutical Approaches Critical Theory as a Paradigmatic View Transactional and Systemic Perspectives on Research Other Guiding Metaphors for Research in Professional Psychology Paradigm Choice, Methodological Pluralism, and the Evaluation of Methodologies Suggested Additional Learning 6. Methods of Inquiry Observation Interviewing Testing and Assessment The Centrality of Meaning and Value Suggested Additional Learning 7. The Applied Epistemology of the Scientist-Practitioner The Nature of Conceptual Development Perceptual Inference and Judgment in Social Context Research on Professional Expertise Ways of Knowing and the Self Developing Reflective Qualities of Mind and Ways of Being Suggested Additional Learning 8. The Case Study as Training Ground The Case Study as an Epistemic Device A Reflective Orientation to Case Analysis Problem Space and Alternative Conceptual Tools Initial Formulations and Hypotheses Posing Questions for Inquiry Factors in the Choice of Procedures Data Guidance and Systematic Inference Other Inquiry Habits Required in Case Study Types and Examples of Case Study Suggested Additional Learning 9. Development of the Reflective Scientist-Practitioner Setting Goals for Professional Development Cultivating Reflective Habits Framing Questions of Practice for Theory and Research Action Research as a Model of Professional Inquiry The Importance of Mentoring Creating Collaborative Learning Communities Suggested Additional Learning References Index

About the Author :
Lisa Tsoi Hoshmand is Professor of Counseling at the California State University, Fullerton.

Review :
"Hoshmand has examined the metatheoretical foundations of psychological inquiry in an unusually thorough, balanced way, and presents her argument in a style that is at once erudite, clear, and practically useful. The statement builds on the best of the constructionist and pragmatic critiques of positivistic scientism, without abandoning the advantages that sensible critical realism and flexible empiricism offer to disciplined inquiry in professional psychology." - Donald Peterson, Rutgers University "The intellectual importance of the work rests in her creative wager as to the direction that changes in methodology will take in the future. The book will be centrally important to the way the field of methodology in the human sciences develops. Professional methodologists in several fields (psychology, sociology, education, etc.) will need to be aware of it." - George Howard, University of Notre Dame