Commentary on “The Method is the Message: How Qualitative Research Has Advanced Constructivist Values in Psychology”

Levitt and Pierorazio (Citation2026) claim that, due to the rise in popularity of qualitative methods within the discipline of psychology in recent times, there has been an infiltration of the values associated with constructivist thinking into the mainstream discipline. The authors argue that the constructivist values of reflexivity and epistemological reflection, together with the embracing of critical contextualism as a philosophical framework, are present in qualitative research and have therefore infiltrated mainstream psychology. While we agree that qualitative methods have become more accepted and popular within the discipline of psychology, we argue that constructivist epistemological assumptions and the requirements of reflexivity are not necessarily characteristic of all qualitative approaches. Furthermore, we maintain there is little evidence that the constructivist values argued to be associated with qualitative research have had a noticeable impact upon the mainstream discipline.