Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses of Psychological Distress

Methodological Complementarity and Ontological Incommensurability

Bibliographic Data

ID5454637
AuthorsRaymond Massé (Department of Anthropology at Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume10
Issue3
Pages411-423
Publication date2000-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Health Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1049-7323 • E-ISSN: 1552-7557
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/104973200129118426
PMID10947485
OpenAlexW2128678385
LanguageEN
Citations received29
References cited13

Rigorous qualitative and quantitative methodologies have been used for the development of a multidimensional scale dedicated to the measurement of psychological distress. A comparison between the idioms of distress or the cultural forms through which French Quebecois express their distress (qualitative constructs) and the nonorthogonal factors derived from explanatory and higher order factorial analyses (quantitative constructs) illustrates the possibilities of complementarity between qualitative and quantitative approaches. The comparison shows that these two operationalizations of the concept of psychological distress are founded on incommensurable representations of distress. This article concludes that this representational dilemma of distress as a lived language or as an empirical reified entity leads to an ontological and a teleological incommensurability

Dilemma · Distress · Epistemology · Mental health · Psychological distress · Psychotherapist · Qualitative property · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Categorization, perception, and language · Cognitive and psychological constructs research · Computer Science · Psychology · Social Psychology · Social Representations and Identity

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