Research in social psychology: Methodological strategies of the brazilian production

Abstract

The aim of this study was identifying the methodological strategies used in Social Psychology research in Brazil. By resorting to the term Social Psychology as an index search factor, a literature review was conducted in papers published in Psychology periodicals indexed at Scielo and Pepsic between 2007 and 2011; and in dissertations and theses abstracts indexed at the CAPES Database from 1987 to 1991, and from 2007 to 2011. Altogether, 877 works were analyzed through SPSS. Results indicated that the main data collection and data analysis techniques were: interviews, associated with content and discourse analysis; questionnaires, analyzed mainly through content analysis and descriptive statistics; and inventories and scales, analyzed through descriptive and multivariate statistics. The most frequently investigated objects were generational groups and health/disease processes. The study points to the need for methodological triangulation in the production of knowledge, aiming to overcome qualitative and quantitative false dichotomies in research methodology.