The Methodology of Syndrome Analysis within the Paradigm of “Qualitat ive Research” in Clinical Psychology

• Main Authors: Elena I. Pervichko, Yuri P. Zinchenko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University 2012-01-01
• Series: Psychology in Russia: State of Art
• Subjects: postnonclassical scientific rationality; self-developing system; psychological syndrome analysis; psychosomatic syndrome; psychological factors of psychosomatic-syndrome genesis; mitral valve prolapse; emotional tension; emotional regulation; failure-avoidance motive.
• Online Access: http://psychologyinrussia.com/volumes/pdf/2012/zinchenko.pdf

This article considers the potential for applying contemporary philosophical theories(which distinguish classical, nonclassical, and postnonclassical types of scientificrationality) to the specification of theoretical methodological principles inthe study of clinical psychology. We prove that psychological syndrome analysis(developed by the Vygotsky–Luria–Zeigarnik school), taken as a system of principlesfor organizing research as well as for interpreting its results, conforms to theepistemological complexity of the object of study in clinical psychology, which isunderstood in the postnonclassical scientific view as a self-developing system.We present an example of the formation of a psychosomatic syndrome in 290patients with mitral-valve prolapse, applying methods of qualitative and statisticaldata analysis in a longitudinal clinical-psychological study. We prove that thesyndrome is system-defined and has a multilevel character, and that its structureis determined by several factors: the motivational factor (with the domination ofthe failure-avoidance motive and the unsatisfied self-approval need); the factor ofthe emotional-regulation disorders, represented by both excessive emotional repressionand lack of emotional control; and a psychophysiological factor. We arguethat a psychosomatic syndrome can be used as a means for approaching not onlydiagnostic but also prognostic tasks both in clinical psychology and in medicine.We conclude that the results of our empirical study, conducted within the frameworkof postnonclassical philosophy and using the methods of psychologicalsyndrome analysis, not only expand the scientific background on the nature of aparticular disease (mitral-valve prolapse) but also pose further questions whoseinvestigation will broaden our view of the psychological mechanisms of psychosomatic-syndrome genesis.