Guseltseva M.S. Review of the Article by A. Gillespie, B. Wagoner „The Looping Effects of Psychological Theories: From Anomaly to Opportunity“

The idea of cyclical effects, or the “looping effect,” was developed by the Canadian philosopher of science Ian Hacking (1936–2023). From a methodological perspective, the looping effect denotes the fact that in the social sciences and humanities the object of research changes under the influence of the very act of investigation. Such effects have often been regarded as destabilizing, problematic, and/or anomalous phenomena. However, the authors of the article under review, A. Gillespie and B. Wagoner, argue that looping effects are in fact beneficial, provided they are taken into account in the development of psychological theories. In particular, understanding looping effects in relation to people, their states, and their behavior undermines notions of stable and immutable entities, encouraging researchers to view the subject of inquiry as a changing person in a changing world. This understanding provides a methodological argument for distinguishing the social sciences and humanities from the natural sciences. In disciplines concerned with human beings, it is necessary to take into account processes of reflection and self-reflection, feedback phenomena, historicity, situational and contextual variability, and related factors. Scientific categories in this domain do not merely register and describe human beings; they also contribute to the formation of subjectivity.

The aim of the publication is to focus attention on cyclical effects within the field of psychological knowledge. A. Gillespie and B. Wagoner suggest that looping effects underlie the variability of human behavior. By describing causal mechanisms, psychological theories themselves become causes of human behavior. In order to explain how psychological theories interact with the phenomena they describe, Gillespie and Wagoner propose a typology of looping effects in psychology. In their analysis, they distinguish between effects that weaken or strengthen a theory, as well as effects that are unintended or intended.

The authors conclude that by conceptualizing and engaging with looping effects, psychological science can develop productive theories that not only improve human behavior but also become reinforced and strengthened over time.

Key words: methodology, psychological theory, looping effects, subject, human behavior

For citation: Guseltseva, M.S. (2026). Review of the article by A. Gillespie, B. Wagoner „The looping effects of psychological theories: From anomaly to opportunity“. New Psychological Research, No. 3, 266–281. DOI: 10.51217/npsyresearch_2026_06_03_14

Acknowledgment

The article was prepared within a state task, project FNRE-2024-0016