An Exploration of the Role of Description in Psychology as a Descriptive Science

Abstract

From a phenomenological point of view psychology as a human science is a descriptive science. Psychology as a descriptive science and psychology as an explanatory science are two distinct types of science and should not be viewed as two phases of science. The major arguments of Amedeo Giorgi's theoretical justification of descriptive science are presented. His arguments are the grounds on which two leading questions are explicated: What is description and what is the role of description in qualitative research? In reflecting on the context of gathering, creating and analysing descriptions, a distinction between description1 (concrete life-world descriptions) and description2 (psychological description of a phenomenon) is made. Descriptions are placed in the context of the researcher's interest; the researcher's request for a description by a subject; the subject as a narrator; the meaning of a description as a text; the researcher as a reader of descriptions and the researcher as author of description2. The conclusion consists of what might be ‘good’ descriptions.