Original title: Theory Before the Test: How to Build High-Verisimilitude Explanatory Theories in Psychological Science
A psychological effect is something researchers measure, while a capacity is an ability of the mind, such as remembering or learning. The paper argues that psychology can focus too much on effects and lose sight of the abilities it wants to explain. It revisits a framework that studies a problem at different levels, then suggests extending it beyond cognitive psychology. The authors also describe a “theoretical cycleThe authors’ name for using analysis of a theory to judge its plausibility before testing it with data.”: examining a theory’s ideas can give it some plausibility before it is tested with data.
Imagine trying to understand why dinner keeps burning. You could record how often it happens, but that alone does not explain what is going wrong with the cooking. In this paper, the burnt dinners are measured effects, while the cooking ability is the capacity the researchers want to explain. Examining how a proposed explanation fits together can give it some plausibility before it is checked against observations.
Researchers, students, and anyone who relies on psychological findings need to know what a result actually explains. The paper argues that starting with the mental capacity—not just a measurable effect—can help build theories that make better sense of evidence across different areas of psychology.
The abstract proposes a framework and discusses where it might be extended, but it does not report empirical tests of the proposal. It does not specify how the theoretical cycle should be carried out in practice or show that it improves explanations.
Ask anything about this paper. Answers come from its abstract, and say so when the abstract doesn't cover your question.
Theory Before the Test: How to Build High-Verisimilitude Explanatory Theories in Psychological Science — Iris van Rooij, Giosuè Baggio — Perspectives on Psychological Science — doi:10.1177/1745691620970604
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.