Theory Construction Methodology: A Practical Framework for Building Theories in Psychology

被引:192
作者
Borsboom, Denny [1 ]
van der Maas, Han L. J. [1 ]
Dalege, Jonas [2 ]
Kievit, Rogier A. [3 ,4 ]
Haig, Brian D. [5 ]
机构
[1] Univ Amsterdam, Dept Psychol, Amsterdam, Netherlands
[2] Santa Fe Inst, Santa Fe, NM 87501 USA
[3] Radboud Univ Nijmegen, Med Ctr, Donders Inst Brain Cognit & Behav, Dept Cognit Neurosci, Nijmegen, Netherlands
[4] Univ Cambridge, Med Res Council, Cognit & Brain Sci Unit, Cambridge, England
[5] Univ Canterbury, Dept Psychol, Christchurch, New Zealand
基金
欧盟地平线“2020”;
关键词
philosophy of science; mutualism; abduction; formal modeling; GENERAL INTELLIGENCE; THEORY APPRAISAL; INFERENCE; NETWORK;
D O I
10.1177/1745691620969647
中图分类号
B84 [心理学];
学科分类号
04 ; 0402 ;
摘要
This article aims to improve theory formation in psychology by developing a practical methodology for constructing explanatory theories: theory construction methodology (TCM). TCM is a sequence of five steps. First, the theorist identifies a domain of empirical phenomena that becomes the target of explanation. Second, the theorist constructs a prototheory, a set of theoretical principles that putatively explain these phenomena. Third, the prototheory is used to construct a formal model, a set of model equations that encode explanatory principles. Fourth, the theorist investigates the explanatory adequacy of the model by formalizing its empirical phenomena and assessing whether it indeed reproduces these phenomena. Fifth, the theorist studies the overall adequacy of the theory by evaluating whether the identified phenomena are indeed reproduced faithfully and whether the explanatory principles are sufficiently parsimonious and substantively plausible. We explain TCM with an example taken from research on intelligence (the mutualism model of intelligence), in which key elements of the method have been successfully implemented. We discuss the place of TCM in the larger scheme of scientific research and propose an outline for a university curriculum that can systematically educate psychologists in the process of theory formation.
引用
收藏
页码:756 / 766
页数:11
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