Filiações epistemológicas em projetos de mestrado em Psicologia: estudo sobre os autores que os fundamentam

Abstract

The increase in demand for post-graduate courses in Ceará (Brazil) raises interest in research of aspects concerning them. This article investigates the bibliographical references used in master projects, by candidates who were submitted to the selection of a master degree in Psychology in a university located in Fortaleza, Ceará, in the period from 2006 to 2010. This is a bibliographic/documental research, whose collection consists of books and documents: sources of study about Psychology - textbooks, psychology epistemology books, guide books - and fifty-two master projects. The books were used to define “basic authors” in the configuration of Psychological Science (psychological theories founders or recognized promoters of them). The references of the fifty-two master projects were analyzed and compared with those cited in the textbooks, psychology epistemology books and guide books. This allowed us identify the pro- portion between the use of “basic authors” and the use of authors, characterized as “emerging authors”, those who begin to be referenced in scientific papers, but have not yet consolidated contributions to the development of psychology. The survey results show that candidates for the Psychology Graduate Program keep balance in the theoretical foundations of the projects. They use preferentially the “basic authors” of psychology and of the other sciences, but they also promote the emergence of new names in the scientific psychological, the “emerging authors”.