In literary criticism, sociology and psychology used the biographical research method that allows you to explore the art, especially social development and psychological development of the individual through the description of the writer's biography, an individual member of society, or a particular person.
In psychology, this method is presented in three versions.The first - a description and analysis of the human in retrospect, on the basis of existing documents and other sources.The second option - a long period of research, collecting biographical data lifetime for subsequent analysis.The third way - by using kauzometrii, ieestablishing links between the various events of life, specified and evaluated in terms of their human significance.
traditional biographical method
Generally, to describe and study the human way of life using different documentary sources: letters, diaries, memoirs of contemporaries and his own, all that remained in time.But such data tend to be incomplete, separate periods of his life turned into a "black hole" biography, and learn about them anything is impossible.Another problem in the study of post factum - is the unreliability of some of the facts, their subjective assessment, inconsistency in describing the same events by different people.
to researcher psychologist is not only important to obtain reliable information, biographies, foreign human life, the description of which he is engaged, but, first of all, his internal emotional, spiritual experiences associated with certain events, their relevance score.Unfortunately, the documented facts reflect the psychological state of a person only partially, and sometimes do not provide such information.
longitudinal biographical method in psychology
Another way to study the biography of a person based on extensive observations of his life.This is a psychological experiment, sometimes lasting a lifetime.Such studies are engaged in the direction of science called "developmental psychology", which is well developed in America and Europe.
Longitudinal observation in the perspective of the individual, of course, more complete and allow to choose various objects and items for analysis.In addition, they allow you to use these actual measurements of various psychological parameters instead of relying on documentary evidence.But the length of time makes them blurred, and does not give a full idea of the development of personality.Another disadvantage of such studies is sorazmerenie conducted long-term observation of the experimenter with the person who gives a very subjective evaluation of life events.
Kauzometrichesky biographical method
This method was based A.A.Kronikom He tries to simulate the human way of life with the help of special techniques, trace cause and effect relationship of life events.The essence of the method lies in the fact that a person selects the most significant event for him, which gives a certain positive or negative, depending on the assessment of their impact on the course of life.By linking these values to the characteristics of the individual, his character and temperament, as well as significant values, it is possible to assess the past life and the right to build a prospect in the future.In this technique aimed kauzometricheskogo analysis that use different means to obtain experimental data: interviews, projective techniques, simulation game situations.
The data are subjective, but the biographical method, in contrast to the traditional, more terapevtichen and useful, as it allows a person to assess their way of life, its structure, allowing for more in-depth analysis and assessment of it.
