In this article the author uses meta-theory and the analyses of philosophers of social science to make proposals for the study of human action. An important aspect of the article revolves around the tension and conflict between lay and social scientific conceptualizations of human action. The methodology outlined and the empirical data included juxtapose ‘the said and done’ of ordinary actors and the ‘tests’ constructed by social scientists.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BhaskarR. (1979). The possibility of naturalism. Sussex: Harvester Press.
2.
BhaskarR. (1986). Scientific realism and human emancipation. London: Verso.
3.
CraigA.P. (1985). Mothers and children: an analysis of change. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Natal, Durban.
4.
CraigA.P. (1987). A cognitive infrastructure for change. Theoria, 70, 77–83.
5.
CraigA.P. (1988a). On the method of analysing human transactions on videotape. South African Journal of Psychology, 18, 96–108.
6.
CraigA.P. (1988b). Excellence in and through education. South African Journal of Higher Education, 2, 3–8.
7.
DasenP.R. (1972). Cross-cultural Piagetain research: A summary. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 3, 23–29.
8.
FeuersteinR. (1980). Instrumental enrichment. An intervention program for cognitive modifiability. Baltimore: University Park Press.
9.
GeertzC. (1973) The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.
10.
GellatlyA.R.H. (1987). Acquisition of a concept of logical necessity. Human Development, 30, 32–47.
11.
HarréR.SecordP.F. (1972). The explanation of social behaviour. Oxford: Blackwell.
12.
HindeR.A.Perret-ClermontA-N.Stevenson-HindeJ. (1985). Social relationships and cognitive development. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
13.
Keeson, (1979). The American child and other cultural inventions. American Psychologist, 34, 815–820.
14.
KokA. (1986). The zone of proximal development from another perspective. Unpublished M.A. thesis. Department of Psychology, University of Natal, Durban.
MillerR. (1984). Reflections of mind and culture. Inaugural lecture. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.
17.
MillerR.CraigA.P. (1985). Cognitive development and social change: Theoretical Issues. In LagunesI.R.PoortingaY.H. (Eds), From a different perspective: studies of behaviour across cultures. Lise: Swets & Zeltlinger.
18.
MoutonJ. (1984, September). Contemporary philosophy of science and the qualitative paradigm. Paper presented at Focus on quality: International conference on research methodology in the social sciences, Durban, University of Durban-Westville.
19.
OgbuJ.U. (1981). Origins of human competence: A cultural-ecological perspective. Child Development, 52, 413–429.
20.
OuthwaiteW. (1987). New philosophies of social science. Realism, Hermeneutics and Critical Theory. London: MacMillan.
21.
Pascual-LeoneJ. (1976). Metasubjective problems of constructive cognition: Forms of knowing their psychological mechanisms. Canadian Psychological Review, 17, 110–125.
22.
Pascual-LeoneJ.GoodmanD. (1979, June). Intelligence and experience: A neo-Piagetian approach. (Report No. 81). Ontario: Department of Psychology, York University.
23.
Perret-ClermontA.N.BrossardA. (1985). On the interdigitation of social and cognitive processes. In HindeR.A.Perret-ClermontA.N.Stevenson-HindeJ. (Eds.), Social relationships and cognitive development. Oxford: Claredon Press.
24.
PiagetJ. (1977). The development of thought. Oxford: Blackwell.
25.
SayerA. (1984). Method in social science. London: Hutchinson.
26.
SmithL. (1986). Children's knowledge: A meta analysis of Piaget's theory. Human Development, 29, 195–208.
27.
SmithL. (1987). The infant's Copernican revolution. Human Development, 30, 210–224.
28.
RicoeurP. (1974). The conflict of intergration; Essays in hermeneutics. Evanston, Illinois: North Western University Press.
29.
RicoeurP. (1976). Intergration theory: Discourse and the surplus of meaning. Fort Worth: Texan Christian University Press.
30.
RogoffB.WertschJ.V. (Eds.). (1984). Children's learning in the ‘zone of proximal development’. Washington:. Jossey, Bass.
31.
TolmanC. (1983) Further comments on the meaning of ‘dialectic’. Human Development, 26, 222–232.
32.
ThompsonJ.B. (Ed.). (1984). Paul Ricoeur: Hermenutics and the human sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
33.
ValsinerJ. (1986). Between groups and individuals: psychologist' and laypersons' interpretation of correlational findings. In ValsinerJ. (Ed.). The individual subject and scientific psychology. New York: Plenum.
34.
ValsinerJ. (1987). Culture and the development of children's action. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
35.
VygotskyL.S. (1976). Mind in society. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
36.
WertschJ.V.McNameeG.McLaneT.BudwigN. (1980). The adult-child dyad as a problem-solving system. Child Development, 51, 1215–1221.
37.
WertschJ.V. (1985). Culture and cognition. Vygotskian perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
