Abductive Reasoning in Psychology

Brian Haig

A broad theory of scientific method is sketched that has particular relevance for psychology and the behavioural sciences. This theory of method assembles a complex of specific strategies and methods that are used in the detection of empirical phenomena and the subsequent construction of explanatory theories. A characterization of the nature of phenomena is given, and the process of their detection is briefly described in terms of a multistage model of data analysis. The construction of explanatory theories is shown to involve their generation through abductive, or explanatory reasoning, their development through analogical modelling, and their fuller appraisal in terms of judgments of the best of competing explanations. The nature and limits of this abductive theory of method are discussed in the light of relevant developments in scientific methodology.

About the speaker: Brian Haig is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Canterbury, and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Education at the University of Bath. He is a theoretical psychologist who has published numerous articles in psychology, education, and philosophy journals on the conceptual foundations of quantitative and qualitative research methods, and the nature of psychological science more generally. He is the author of Investigating the Psychological World (MIT Press, 2014) and The Philosophy of Quantitative Methods (Oxford University Press, 2017), and co-author of Realist Inquiry in Social Science (Sage, 2016). He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the New Zealand Psychological Society.