Psychology’s Borrowings from Medical Methodology: Analog Comparisons

Abstract

Medical advances force practitioners to work in an increasingly standardized manner with their patients. Quantitative health psychology attempts to follow a similar path by adopting, for the same patients, methods that are equally systematized. In this article, the origin of such an attempt will first be positioned historically. The clinical method will then be used to establish that, while patients tend to accept the cons traints imposed by the medical technique, they usually resist those resulting from quantitative psychology. Based on clinical observations, we will present several ways in which such resistance may manifest itself. This article aims to further the understanding of qualitative health in psychology.