Realist Inquiry in Social Science

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 recently published a book entitled Investigating the Psychological World (MIT Press, 2014). He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the New Zealand Psychological Society.Colin Evers is Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of New South Wales, having previously worked at The University of Hong Kong, Monash University, and the University of Sydney. He studied mathematics, philosophy, and education before taking his PhD in philosophy of education at the University of Sydney. His teaching and research interests are in educational administration, philosophy of education, and research methodology. He has co-edited and co-authored ten books in his various fields of interest including Knowing Educational Administration, Exploring Educational Administration and Doing Educational Administration (all written with Gabriele Lakomski and published by Pergamon/Elsevier) and many papers.

• Chapter 1: Scientific RealismWhat is Realism?Naturalistic RealismGlobal and Local RealismRealist MethodologyThe Centrality of MethodRealism in the Social SciencesChapter 2: EvidenceSocial Science PreliminariesEmpirical Evidence and TheoryCoherentism and NaturalismVarieties of Evidence: Pragmatic ConsiderationsChapter 3: ValidityTest Validity, Operational Definition, and Logical EmpiricismHolism, Realism, and Ontological CommitmentConstruct Validity and Logical EmpiricismConstruct Validity, Generalization in Experiments, and EpistemologyParadigms of ValidityCoherence JustificationChapter 4: Grounded TheoryThe Abductive Theory of MethodProblem FormulationPhenomena DetectionTheory ConstructionATOM as Grounded Theory MethodChapter 5: Factor AnalysisExploratory Factor Analysis and Scientific InferenceMethodological Challenges to Exploratory Factor AnalysisExploratory Factor Analysis and Other Factor Analytic MethodsChapter 6: Case StudyConstitutive and Regulative RulesWhat is A Case?Generalizing From CasesA Case Study in ChinaMaking GeneralizationsImproving Knowledge of Generalizations

The current replication crisis in psychology makes professors’ Haig and Evers book as timely as it is erudite. Using philosophical realism as their organizing principle, they take the reader on a creative and insightful tour through validity, Grounded Theory, factor analysis and case studies in an effort to improve and advance psychological research.