Volume 5, No. 3, Art. 6 – September 2004

The Individual and His/Her World in the Flux of Time: History and Biography in Psychological Research

Hans Thomae in Conversation With Jürgen Straub

Abstract: The interview explores the important academic experiences with mentors and intellectual impulses which have supported and guided the psychological thinking of Hans THOMAE, especially in his approach to "biographical method." Questions about motivation in human activity, consciousness and life history are impulses that—mediated and guided by NIETZSCHE, HERDER, MORITZ, SPRANGER, ROTHACKER, LERSCH and KLAGES among others—finally led THOMAE to the development and shaping of a "biographical method" in psychology; a method which propagates the inclusion of the individual's life-story, the openness and clarity of the survey, as well as a synthesis of nomological and ideographical approaches to qualitative and quantitative research.

Key words: professional biography, consciousness, motivation, biographical method, research on coping, nomological psychology, case studies, hermeneutic, individuality

This contribution is only available as a full text in the German language. German text

Last update: 09/27/2004

Volume 5, No. 3 Table of Contents

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