Approaches That Enable Analytical Generalization in Psychological and Sociological Research

Dear Colleagues,

It is essential that research is promoted that is able to create, innovate, and challenge current thinking in psychological and sociological studies. Example methodologies that are able to achieve this include different forms of grounded theory as well as recently developed review types. An example of a type of grounded theory could be the social constructivist grounded theory, which employs qualitative interviews as a way to developing ideas and analytical understanding through methods like constant comparisons where analyses slowly become more abstract. A type of review that has the ability to generate theories could be a social constructivist meta-ethnography. However, this Special Issue encourages different methodologies, methods, and approaches. Both empirical and review-based research like this are able to use cycles of iterative processes that test and develop theories; they use abductive and inductive reasoning to create and innovate findings and ultimately propose new models, processes, and theories for research. However, most of the time, studies may not result in the formation of a theory, so this Special Issue also accepts new ideas or integrative discoveries from the methodologies selected. One of the outputs from these approaches is the ability to create research that exhibits analytical generalization and, with this, makes scientific leaps.

This Special Issue is focused on approaches that have been applied across different groups or populations. The articles for this Special Issue will only be included if they propose a novel process, model, or theory.

Dr. Andrew Soundy
Guest Editor

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