How to Develop Abstract Thinking Skills (Researcher’s Superpower – Part 4)

If abstract thinking is the researcher’s superpower, the obvious next question is: can it be developed? The answer is a clear yes. We all have abstract thinking skills and, importantly, we can continue to develop them over time.

This video emphasises that developing abstract thinking is a long-term and cumulative process, built through sustained intellectual practice. Small, consistent efforts matter as over time they accumulate into significant cognitive growth.

One of the key insights is that abstract thinking is transferable across contexts. The skills you develop in research can improve how you make decisions in everyday life, whether interpreting the economy, navigating relationships or making financial choices. And the reverse is also true: engaging in abstract activities outside research can strengthen your thinking within it.

The video highlights several practical ways to develop these skills:

• Engaging in research activities like writing, analysis, and theorising

• Practising deliberately, which means focusing on weaknesses rather than strengths

• Exploring complex problems instead of avoiding them

• Drawing on broader activities such as reading, discussion or puzzles

At a deeper level, development involves becoming more comfortable with complexity and ambiguity, enabling more abstract ways of thinking.

Ultimately, abstract thinking evolves with purposeful and sustained effort. You certainly develop it during your studies, but it is also a skill you can continue to refine throughout your career and beyond.

Watch the video to discover how to take a more intentional approach to developing the skill that underpins high-quality research.

Videos will be available in this playlist as they are released. To go to this week's video, press skip forward three times once the first video starts.

Subscribers of the Virtual Tutor resource access all videos as they are finalised. Besides these videos which address abstract thinking head on, the Virtual Tutor resource features many tips and tools aimed at helping you develop your abstract thinking skills across key stages of the research process: from literature review and writing the introduction, to data analysis and building conceptual frameworks.

If you want more personalised support, I also work with students and researchers to help them move beyond simply describing data toward conceptualising and synthesising. Whether you are refining your research focus, building your conceptual framework, desigining your data collection instrument or strengthening the theoretical contribution of your work, the focus of my support is always the same: helping you step back from the details to identify the patterns, relationships, and principles that define strong research. You can find more details about my personalised support here.