Abstract:

Psychology as a scientific discipline has often encountered theoretical dilemmas throughout its developmental trajectory. First, the commonly used scientific methods in current research demonstrate inadequate efficacy in theoretical construction. For instance, current psychological research primarily utilizes the hypothetico-deductive method, which focuses on gathering empirical evidence to validate pre-existing theories but neglects the process of theory (or hypothesis) construction. Second, despite the abundance of theories in psychology, there is little focus on the unity between theories. Third, the logical connections between theories and the empirical evidence used to test them are often weak. The fundamental reason underlying all of these theoretical dilemmas may be the lack of systematic methodological guidance for theory construction. However, the abductive theory of method provides a systematic explanatory framework and methodological guidance for theory construction in psychology. This method emphasizes not only the detection of phenomena through empirical evidence but also the subsequent construction of explanatory theories. According to this methodological framework, scientific inquiry should be guided by research problems and consists of two main stages. The first stage involves detecting phenomena through inductive reasoning in the form of empirical generalizations. The abductive theory of method outlines the process of phenomena detection as a statistically oriented, multistage model of data analysis that includes initial data analysis (screening the data for its quality), exploratory data analysis (using multiple forms of description and display to identify data patterns), close replication (verifying the stability of the data patterns ), and constructive replication (ascertaining the generalizability of the results identified by successful close replication). This process employs multiple strategies and statistical methods of data analysis to uncover the phenomenon. The second stage is the construction of theory, which includes three components: theory generation through existential abduction, theory development through analogical abduction, and theory appraisal through inference to the best explanation. Although theory generation temporally precedes its development, theory appraisal begins with theory generation and continues throughout development, eventually extending to comparative appraisal of mature theories. Generally speaking, theory generation and development follow a temporal sequence, while theory appraisal occurs throughout the entire the process of theory construction. This dynamic process of theory construction ensures the continuous optimization and refinement of the theory.

Abductive theory of method offers innovative perspectives for psychological researchers engaged in theory construction. First of all, this framework advocates a bottom-up scientific inquiry process commencing with novel phenomenon detection followed by theory construction, which integrates two forms of inductive and abductive reasoning, and a variety of research methods and strategies, forming a relatively systematic framework for scientific research. To a certain extent, this framework makes up for the problem of hypothetico-deductive method that disproportionately emphasize hypothesis verification but neglects theory construction. Moreover, under the guidance of this theoretical framework, researchers are able to combine and utilize different research methods and strategies according to the research objectives and needs when conducting scientific exploration. Second, the theoretical framework provides systematic methods and steps for theory construction, covering the whole process from the discovery of new phenomena in multiple quantitative and qualitative data analyses to the cross-validation of explanatory theories through multi-methods, which is highly operable and provides guidance for the construction of a unified psychological theory. Ultimately, abductive theory of method emphasizes theoretical explanatory work on detected phenomena. Continuously iterating the development and appraisal of theories can lead to better and more reliable theories constructed by researchers. Thus, the abductive theory of method offers a systematic interpretive framework and methodological guidance for constructing theories in psychology, which is of great significance to the theoretical development of psychology.

Key words: abductive theory of method, theory construction, psychology