In a recent conversation sparked by Ekaterina Damer, there has been a surge of advice from psychologists on Twitter regarding crucial literature on theory in psychology. Below is a collection of these recommended texts, accompanied by the names of their endorsers. Should you have additional recommendations, feel free to share them in the comments section.
Suggested Readings:
(Iris van Rooij)
– “How does it work?” vs. “What are the laws?” Two interpretations of psychological explanation by Robert Cummins
(Ed Orehek)
– Theory Development in Social Personality Psychology: Personal Insights and Lessons Acquired – Personality and Social Psychology Review
(Djouria Ghilani)
– Personal Insights on Theory and Psychology by Gerd Gigerenzer
– Selected Publications of Barry N. Markovsky
(Tal Yarkoni and others)
– Theory-testing in psychology and physics: A methodological enigma
– Evaluating and modifying theories: The method of Lakatosian defense and two principles that support it
– Why summaries of research on psychological theories often lack clarity
Extra Resources:
– Paul Meehl on the philosophy of science: video presentations and articles – In-depth summaries provided by PsychBrief
(Burak Tunca)
– What Theory is Not by Robert I. Sutton & Barry M. Staw
(Joshua Skewes)
– Valerie Gray Hardcastle’s “How to create a theory in cognitive science”
(Randy McCarthy)
– Chapter 1 of Gawronski, B., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2015). Theory and explanation in social psychology. Guilford Publications.
(Kimberly Quinn)
– Innovative hypothesis generation in psychology: Some valuable heuristics by W. J. McGuire, Annual Review of Psychology
(Daniël Lakens)
– Jaccard, J., & Jacoby, J. (2010). Theory Development and Model-Building Skills: A Practical Handbook for Social Scientists. Guilford Press.
(Tom Stafford)
– Fiedler, K. (2004). Tools, toys, truisms, and theories: Some considerations on the creative process of theory development. Personality and Social Psychology Review
(Richard Prather)
– Simmering et al (2010). To Model or Not to Model? A Discussion on the Role of Computational Modeling in Developmental Science
(Eric Morris)
– Wilson, K. G. (2001). Some observations on theoretical constructs: types and validation from a contextual behavioral viewpoint
(Michael P. Grosz)
– Theoretical Amnesia by Denny Borsboom
(Ivan Grahek)
– Fiedler (2017). <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.