Theoretical triangulation in psychological research as an epistemological technology

Abstract

The relevance of presenting theoretical triangulation as a type of research strategy arises from the need to modernize epistemological technologies in the era of Metamodernity. Among the five most common types of triangulation – data, researcher, methodological, theoretical, and multiple – theoretical triangulation plays a key role at the stage of modeling the subject of research and then its conceptual construction with subsequent empirical verification by experimental and diagnostic (quantitative) methods. This method of theoretical triangulation represents a deductive path of cognition and finding cause-and-effect (causal) dependencies. The essence of this type of triangulation lies in the rapprochement and mutual complementarity of orthogonal concepts in order to develop a certain unifying epistemological platform on which these concepts will symbolize different poles of consideration and explanation of the phenomenon under study. In the case of the implementation of the inductive path of cognition, theoretical triangulation consists in generalizing and systematizing heterogeneous, even mutually exclusive facts, finding characteristic tendencies of the functioning of the studied phenomenon, and, finally, forming a new interpretative framework for further study of the phenomenon. Thus, the research psychologist discovers the target (teleological) determinants of the individual’s behavior. Both paths of cognition require painstaking work with scientific texts and professional hermeneutic studies, often using psycholinguistic methods. The psychological mechanism that ensures the success of theoretical triangulation is a developed ability for synthetic, intuitive, and metaphorical thinking, which allows for transduction – finding accessible visual analogues of the studied objects. Ultimately, this leads to an understanding of both causal and teleological relationships. The article provides an example of the application of theoretical triangulation for a large-scale representation of the modes and vectors of a person’s life on the basis of a holistic unit – the chronotope.