Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-8zxtt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T11:22:59.085Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 10 - Implications of ECT for Research Methodology

Toward a New Epistemology of Human Excellence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  aN Invalid Date NaN

David Yun Dai
Affiliation:
SUNY Albany
Get access

Summary

Chapter 10 explores epistemological and methodological implications of ECT. The overarching issue is whether one adopts a reductive logic or an emergent logic, and whether one is mainly concerned with linear causation versus emergence. The former helps map out developmental diversity from a population perspective, and the latter inductively derives the emergence of new structures, properties, and patterns through real-time person–task interaction. The further issue is making decisions on using person-centered versus variable-centered approaches. At a more epistemological level, ECT does not endorse the deductive logic of falsification, which has a deterministic connotation. Given the indeterminacy involved in talent development, ECT argues that theoretical predictions regarding short-term and long-term outcomes can be based on soft constraint satisfaction as a new epistemology guiding predictions, which dictates that talent trajectories, pathways, and achievement patterns are indeterminate but principled. The chapter thereby proposes five terms (emergence, adaptation, divergence, excellence, and coherence) as organizing research that taps into probabilistic epigenesis, proximal processes, and developmental self-organization toward higher-order coherence. Each term constrains the structure of inquiry and methodology, including what timescale of action is appropriate, and whether quantitative or qualitative, deductive or inductive methods should be used.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Nature and Nurture of Talent
A New Foundation for Human Excellence
, pp. 215 - 238
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×