Peters Gjalt-Jorn Ygram, Crutzen Rik
a Department of Methodology & Statistics, Faculty of Psychology & Education Science , Open University of the Netherlands , Heerlen , Netherlands.
b Faculty of Psychology & Neuroscience, Department of Work & Social Psychology, Maastricht University , Maastricht , Netherlands.
Health Psychol Rev. 2017 Jun;11(2):103-121. doi: 10.1080/17437199.2017.1284015. Epub 2017 Feb 10.
Health psychology developed a plethora of theories to explain and change a wide variety of behaviours. Several attempts have been undertaken to build integrative theories, some even striving for a Theory of Everything. We argue against these efforts, arguing that instead a 'pragmatic nihilism' perspective may be more fruitful to understand and change health behaviours. The first tenet of pragmatic nihilism is that psychological variables are usefully considered as metaphors rather than referring to entities that exist in the mind. As a consequence, the second tenet emphasizes theories' definitions and guidelines for the operationalisation of those variables. The third tenet of pragmatic nihilism is that each operationalisation represents an intersection of a variety of dimensions, such as behavioural specificity and duration, and most importantly, psychological aggregation level. Any operationalisation thus represents a number of choices regarding these dimensions. Pragmatic nihilism has two implications. First, it provides a foundation that enables integrating theories in a more flexible and accurate manner than made possible by integrative theories. Second, it emphasizes the importance of operationalisations, underlining the importance of investing in the careful development of measurement instruments, thorough reporting of measurement instruments' specifics and performance, and full disclosure of the instruments themselves.
健康心理学发展出了大量理论来解释和改变各种各样的行为。人们进行了多次尝试来构建整合理论，有些甚至力求建立一种涵盖一切的理论。我们反对这些努力，认为相反，一种“实用虚无主义”的视角可能对理解和改变健康行为更有成效。实用虚无主义的首要原则是，心理变量应被有益地视为隐喻，而非指代存在于头脑中的实体。因此，第二个原则强调理论对这些变量进行操作化的定义和指导方针。实用虚无主义的第三个原则是，每一种操作化都代表了多种维度的交叉，如行为特异性和持续时间，最重要的是心理聚合水平。因此，任何操作化都代表了关于这些维度的一系列选择。实用虚无主义有两个含义。首先，它提供了一个基础，使得以比整合理论更灵活、更准确的方式整合理论成为可能。其次，它强调了操作化的重要性，突出了投入精力精心开发测量工具、全面报告测量工具的细节和性能以及充分披露工具本身的重要性。
