Review essay: Which way psychology? A discussion of barbara: Held's psychology's interpretative turn: The search for truth and agency in theoretical and philosophical psychology

Abstract

Some psychologists have recently tried to develop new approaches to psychology incompatible with both natural-science views of the discipline and basic tenets of postmodernism. In her new book on psychology's interpretative turn, Barbara Held refers to these thinkers as "middleground theorists" or MGTs. Most of the MGTs reject psychological laws, defend free choice and agency, stress the role of values in psychological inquiry, and argue for a hermeneutical methodology. Some reject scientific realism and embrace epistemological relativism. Both Held and I express doubts about some of these views. © The Author(s) 2010.