Paradigms in Theory Construction

Introduction. On the Nature of Psychological Paradigms. Section I. Meta-theoretical Paradigms: General-Integrative. Biopsychosocial. Information Processing. Ecological. Interbehaviorism. Levels of Analysis and Observations. Life-span Perspective. Systems. Section II. Meta-theoretical Paradigms: Particular-Specific. Behaviorism. Cognitivism. Contextualism. Empiricism. Existentialism. Rationalism. Section III. Operational Paradigms. Reductionism Proper. Organic Reductionism. Produced Emergent Interactionism. Spontaneous Emergent Interactionism. Synthetic Integration. Salience. Section IV. Conclusion. The Role of Specificity in Paradigm Selection.