Theory Before the Test: How to Build High-Verisimilitude Explanatory Theories in Psychological Science

Drawing on the philosophy of psychological explanation, we suggest that psychological science, by focusing on effects, may lose sight of its primary explananda: psychological capacities. We revisit Marr's levels-of-analysis framework, which has been remarkably productive and useful for cognitive psychological explanation. We discuss ways in which Marr's framework may be extended to other areas of psychology, such as social, developmental, and evolutionary psychology, bringing new benefits to these fields. We then show how theoretical analyses can endow a theory with minimal plausibility even before contact with empirical data: We call this the theoretical cycle. Finally, we explain how our proposal may contribute to addressing critical issues in psychological science, including how to leverage effects to understand capacities better.

Formalizing Verbal Theories

Abstract. We present a tutorial for formalizing verbal theories of psychological phenomena – social or otherwise. The approach builds on concepts and tools from the mathematics of computation. We use intuitive examples and illustrate the intrinsic dialectical nature of the formalization process by presenting dialogues between two fictive characters, called Verbal and Formal. These characters’ conversations and thought experiments serve to highlight important lessons in theoretical modeling.