Explaining the concept of abductive reasoning and its capacities and applications in psychological studies and counseling

Objective: abductive reasoning is one of the methods of reasoning that, despite the fact that it has been criticized by many scientists and philosophers, today some consider its application useful in research. The purpose of this research was to explain the concept of abductive reasoning and its capacities and applications in psychological studies and counseling. Method: The current research is a review and descriptive-analytical research article. Articles and books related to the application of abductive reasoning in research, especially psychology and counseling research, which were extracted from the databases of reliable scientific-research articles, were used. Results: A review of relevant sources shows that this method of reasoning can be a strong method for guessing scientific hypotheses. Conclusion: The use of abductive reasoning in making assumptions and conclusions for guesses can give more power to the conclusions, and if combined with the current common scientific methods, it can increase the power of explaining theories and conclusions.