Resumen

FERREIRA, Ricardo Franklin; CALVOSO, Genilda Garcia  y  GONZALES, Carlos Batista Lopes. Research pathways and contemporaneity. Psicol. Reflex. Crit. [online]. 2002, vol.15, n.2, pp. 243-250. ISSN 0102-7972.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0102-79722002000200002.

This paper focuses on matters associated with objective epistemological concepts that work as foundation to modern science. It also discusses the transformations that this science model has gone trough as a function of new paradigms of thinking, developed in contemporaneity, and its resultant diversity of research methods. Special emphasis has been given to discussions of qualitative research methods. It's concluded that despite the lower generalization power and the interference of researcher subjectivity on this type of research, it starts to be seen as a situation in which meaning production processes occurs as part of social phenomena. It is not, so far, the correspondence between the facts and representation the fundamental criterion to validate knowledge. But under a pragmatic vision, it changes towards satisfying the need of a better comprehension and real benefits to human beings.

Palabras llave : Contemporaneus age; epistemology; science; qualitative research; researcher´ s subjectivity.