167 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
S. H. Koller (ed.), Psychology in Brazil,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11336-0_10
Looking in History for Novel Integrated
View on Psychological Science and Method
William Barbosa Gomes
Abstract The feld of psychology in Brazil characterizes by a multivariate and
pluralistic understanding of science and profession, by infuences received at differ-
ent times from Europe and North America. Brazil was a pioneer in the recognition
of psychology as a profession, although a research-supported education occurred
more slowly. My career developed in the period between the pioneering effort of the
frst Brazilian psychologists from the frst half of the twentieth century and the new
generation of highly qualifed professionals and researchers from the beginning of
the twenty-frst century, forged in postgraduate studies. I could describe my career
as being direct to help consolidate postgraduate studies in the last three decades of
the twentieth century. My interest was to increase the publication of journals accord-
ing to international scientifc standards, to insist on indexing of national journals,
and to reinvigorate the study of the history of psychology, considering its philo-
sophical and cultural infuences. In research, I looked at a combined and reversible
interplay between qualities and quantities, guided by four logics: abduction (the
power of creativity), induction (the exercise of invention), deduction (the rigor of
analyses), and adduction (the critical necessity).
Psychological science stems from a long history in philosophy, developing in the
midst of bitter theoretical disputes, but bringing advances in research methods along
with advances on application effectiveness. Many misunderstandings persist about
psychological science among students, anti-scientifc segments, and people in gen-
eral. Thus, it is easy to understand why Stanovich (2004) begins his popular book
How to Think Straight About Psychology stating: “There is a body of knowledge
that is unknown to most people...Surprisingly enough, this unknown body of knowl-
edge is the discipline of psychology” (p. ix). This situation is even more serious in
Brazil, where the profession grew rapidly, in contrast to the science that had a slow
W. B. Gomes (*)
Instituto de Psicologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
e-mail: gomesw@ufrgs.br