Reichertz, J. (2009). Abduction: The Logic of Discovery of Grounded Theory. The SAGE Handbook of Grounded Theory, 214-228. doi:10.4135/9781848607941.n10
By Jo Reichertz (214)
- Grounded theory is split in two-directions:
- Strauss and Corbin:
- Strauss: Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists (1987)
- Strauss and Corbin: Basics of Qualitative Research (1990)
- “Theoretical pre-knowledge flows into the data’s interpretation”
- Glaser:
- Codes and categories emerge directly from the data
- Abduction is a concept revisited by Peirce;
- Grounded theory became more abductive in the work of Strauss and Corbin
Abduction: A Rule-governed Way to New Knowledge
- Abduction was introduced in 1597 and revisited by Peirce (1839-1914)
- Abduction is:
- Logical inference
- Reasonable, scientific
- Leads to new knowledge
- “intended to help social research… to make new discoveries in a logically and methodologically ordered way.”
- Rule-governed way to produce new knowledge
Deduction, Quantitative and Qualitative Induction, Abduction
- Abduction leads to new discovery by “bring[ing] together things which one had never associated with one another.” It occurs when no pre-existing theory is tested.
- To conduct abduction, you have to be in an environment that will help you be in tune with your sensibilities and intuition. You have to allow your mind to wander without a specific goal
- Absolute certainty can’t be achieved in abduction because the collection and analysis can theoretically continue forever. Therefore, generalization with one absolute truth is not the goal
- The goal of GT is not about finding / confirming an absolute truth
- GT is not just a coding paradigm; new hypotheses and categories can constantly form in abduction
- Author claims there are strong connections between Strauss and Corbin’s GT methods to Peirce’s research in abduction
- Abduction is used in Strauss and Corbin’s GT approach