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8 - Jahoda

The Ultimate Example

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2019

Michael Billig
Affiliation:
Loughborough University
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Summary

The final analytic chapter presents the ultimate example: Marie Jahoda, who embodied virtues that are praised in earlier chapters. She was the author of a classic study looking at the effects of mass unemployment the early 1930s. In her report she made telling use of examples to depict the lives of those whom she and her team studied. Just as her examples overspill any theory of unemployment, so the reasons why Jahoda sets an example overspill her abilities to use examples. She understood the tensions between theory and examples, coming down strongly on the side of the latter, recognizing the importance of ‘descriptive fieldwork’. She argued that psychologists were over-valuing theory. She wrote directly with minimum jargon and maximum clarity, believing in the importance of studying the lives of individuals. Jahoda’s use of examples and her suspicion of theory in psychology were just two aspects of a wider humane vision.

Type
Chapter
Information
More Examples, Less Theory
Historical Studies of Writing Psychology
, pp. 217 - 242
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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  • Jahoda
  • Michael Billig, Loughborough University
  • Book: More Examples, Less Theory
  • Online publication: 12 September 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108696517.008
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  • Jahoda
  • Michael Billig, Loughborough University
  • Book: More Examples, Less Theory
  • Online publication: 12 September 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108696517.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Jahoda
  • Michael Billig, Loughborough University
  • Book: More Examples, Less Theory
  • Online publication: 12 September 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108696517.008
Available formats
×