Pragmatic Nihilism: How a Theory of Nothing Can Help Health Psychology Progress

Abstract

Health psychology aims to explain and change a wide variety of behaviours, and to this end has developed a plethora of theories. Several attempts have been undertaken to build integrative theories, and some even strive for a Theory of Everything. We argue against these efforts, arguing that instead, adopting a stance that may be called ‘pragmatic nihilism’ is more fruitful in the endeavour to understand and change specific health behaviours.The first tenet of pragmatic nihilism is that psychological variables, those defined in our health psychology theories, 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 a cross section of a variety of dimensions, such as behavioural specificity and duration of the behaviour, and most importantly, psychological aggregation level. Any operationalisation thus represents a number of implicit or explicit choices regarding these dimensions.These three tenets of pragmatic nihilism have two implications. First, they provide a foundation that enables integrating theories in a more flexible and accurate manner than made possible by integrative theories. Second, this perspective emphasizes the importance of operationalisations, underlining the importance of investing in the careful development of measurement instruments, and thorough and extensive reporting of the specifics and performance on those measurement instruments as well as disclosure of the instruments themselves.

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