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The road to freedom: Quantitative developmental methodology in the third millennium

In this article we ask three questions. First, what is the relationship between substantive psychological research and research in the area of applied quantitative, statistical methods? Second, what is the development that applied quantitative methodology will undergo in the foreseeable future? Third, will this development affect the future of psychological research? The answers to these questions are cast in terms of six trends and three anticipated problems. The trends are: (1) increase in the number of available statistical methods; (2) substantive thinking triggers the development of new statistical methods; (3) statistical methods become increasingly flexible; (4) computers do the thinking; (5) there will be new paradigms such as the person-oriented perspective; and (6) statistical methods will be custom-tailored to substantive questions. The general tenor of the discussion of these trends is that the number of possibilities will increase and the researcher will be freed from method-specific constraints. The three problem trends are: (1) the choice between methods of analysis becomes increasingly difficult; (2) cases of misuse of statistics will become more frequent; and (3) the role of the methodologist will change such that more substantive knowledge will be required. In addition, issues of training of methodologists and financing research are discussed. The general outlook is depicted as encouraging.