**Investigating Psychological Theory: A Summary of Expert Suggestions from Twitter**
A recent discussion thread started by Ekaterina Damer has ignited conversations among psychologists on Twitter, resulting in a wealth of valuable recommendations. These insights cover various subjects within psychological theory, providing a wide selection of readings for those keen to enhance their knowledge. Below, we offer an assembly of these recommendations, attributed to their individual proponents. Feel free to use the comments section for further suggestions.
**Suggested Readings:**
1. **”How does it operate?” vs. “What are the principles?” Two perspectives on psychological explanation** – Robert Cummins
– Recommended by Iris van Rooij
– [Read here](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f5b1/b05e8313aee94ccd98e80eab3ec56dbd2c97.pdf)
2. **Theory Development in Social Personality Psychology: Personal Experiences and Lessons Gleaned** – Special Issue of Personality and Social Psychology Review
– Recommended by Ed Orehek
– [Read here](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327957pspr0802_1)
3. **Personal Insights on Theory and Psychology** – Gerd Gigerenzer
– Recommended by Djouria Ghilani
– [Read here](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0959354310378184)
4. **Selected Writings of Barry N. Markovsky**
– [Read here](https://works.bepress.com/barry_markovsky/)
5. Insights from Paul Meehl:
– *Theory-validation in psychology and physics: A methodological contradiction*
– [Read here](http://meehl.umn.edu/sites/g/files/pua1696/f/074theorytestingparadox.pdf)
– *Evaluating and modifying theories: The approach of Lakatosian defense and two principles that justify it*
– [Read here](http://meehl.umn.edu/sites/g/files/pua1696/f/147appraisingamending.pdf)
– *Why overviews of research on psychological theories are frequently ambiguous*
– [Read here](http://meehl.umn.edu/sites/g/files/pua1696/f/144whysummaries.pdf)
– Comprehensive summaries by PsychBrief: [Paul Meehl on philosophy of science](http://psychbrief.com/meehl-videos-papers/)
6. **What Theory is Not** – Robert I. Sutton & Barry M. Staw
– Recommended by Burak Tunca
– [Read here](http://haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/papers/stawtheory.pdf)
7. **How to develop a theory in cognitive science** – Valerie Gray Hardcastle
– Recommended by Joshua Skewes
8. **Theory and explanation in social psychology** – Gawronski, B., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2015)
– Recommended by Randy McCarthy
9. **Innovative hypothesis formulation in psychology: Some helpful heuristics** – McGuire, W. J. (1997)
– Recommended by Kimberly Quinn
– [Read here](http://sing.stanford.edu/cs303-sp11/papers/mcguire_hypothesis_gen.pdf)
10. **Theory Development and Model-building Competencies: A Practical Guide for Social Scientists** – Jaccard, J., & Jacoby, J. (2010)
– Recommended by Daniël Lakens
11. **Tools, toys, truisms, and theories: Thoughts on the creative cycle of theory creation** – Fiedler, K. (2004)
– Recommended by Daniël Lakens
12. **How convincing is a strong fit? A commentary on theory validation** – Roberts and Pashler (2000)
– Recommended by Tom Stafford
– [Read here](https://cloudfront.escholarship.org/dist/prd/content/qt5vt0z72k/qt5vt0z72k.pdf)
13. **To Model or Not to Model? A Conversation on the Importance of Computational Modeling in Developmental Science** – Simmering et al. (2010)
– Recommended by Richard Prather
– [Read here](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3103214/)
14. **Psychological Theory Discussion Group** – Facebook Group established by Brett Buttliere
– [Join the group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/153619768802306/about/)
15. **Notes on theoretical constructs: types and validation from a contextual behavioral viewpoint** – Wilson, K. G. (2001)
– Recommended by Eric