Digital humanism

Abstract

Much history of psychology presumes a discordance between its humanistic methods and the focus on rigorous statistical reasoning that is typical of the field it studies. However, the conditions of abundant data typical of digital humanities tend to relax the constraints of tests of significance and to allow greater freedom to try out alternative interpretations within the frame of a single study. At the same time, the elusiveness of rigorous standardization within a very large database, especially if it stretches over wide spaces or many decades, may be seen to demand meticulous source criticism of a sort that has more often been associated with the humanities than with quantitative science. There is even a tendency for the data itself to drift away from its usual function as a means of research and to become itself an object of study, inspiring reflection on how the tools and concepts of a field like psychology may be evolving in response to new constraints or ambitions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).