Complementarity of Contexts As a Methodological Principle of Psychology

Abstract

The article proposes a solution to the methodological crisis of modern psycho­logical science and practice using the methodology of the contextual approach. To ensure a combination of conflicting psychological concepts without their mu­tual reduction, it is proposed to use support on the principle of complementarity. The application of this principle to the description of the phenomenon of context itself allows us to present it both as a static structure (semantic field) and as a dy­namic process (semantization of mental contents). Additional are also the de­scription of the context as a mental phenomenon and as an epistemological study. In this regard, we can distinguish the broad (sociocultural conditions) and narrow (methodology of cognition) contexts of scientific research. It is proposed that all descriptions of the subject of research in various contexts be considered not as full-volume, but as describing a given object only partially. The combina­tion of descriptions of the psychic phenomenon obtained in additional contexts provides coverage of different levels and types of its representations in a single multidimensional system of psychological knowledge.