Why does water become “hard” at 0ºC? Chemical theories explain why compounds change state:
Research Skills for Psychology Majors: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started
Theories and Models in Psychology
Why We Care About Theories
The goal of science is to develop and test theories. Science does a lot of other things that don’t seem like they have anything to do with theory development, but the bottom line is producing good theories.
Scientists and philosophers argue about what a theory really is, and what a good theory looks like. Some of the formal definitions include:
“A set of principles that explains and predicts many, but not all, observed relationships within a given domain of inquiry” (Stangor, 1998, p. 30).
“A formalized set of concepts that organizes observations and inferences and predicts and explains phenomena” (Graziano & Raulin, 2000, p. 37).
There are many more definitions, but they generally come down to these basic parts:
1. explain nature 2. predict events 3. tell us what to look for and how to look 4. tell us what our data mean
Theories explain why things are the way they are. Why does water become “hard” at 0ºC? Chemical theories explain why compounds change state: what they are made of (atoms, molecules, etc.) and how they respond to change in energy (tem- perature). Why do people become racially prejudiced? Social psychology proposes a dozen theories to explain various aspects of this complex event, for example, it seems to reflect a cognitive bias that produces negatively valanced thoughts about others for whom we have poorly articulated cognitive schemata. “Why?” is the scientist’s mantra, and when you stop asking Why? it’s time to pack it in and turn on the TV.
Good theories go beyond just answering Why? to being able to predict events given the necessary information. A theory that explains why ice forms but can’t predict when it will form has a problem. Psychological theories are better at explaining why than at making predictions, in part because behavior is multiply de- termined: it is the result of many complicated intersecting and interacting factors. Ice is not as simple as it seems at first, either: how about predicting the formation of ice from dirty water? salty water? water at various altitudes? water that is
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moving?
Prediction is particularly important when theories involve real-world events that have consequences, such as the kinds of questions asked by applied psychology. Applied psychology includes the fields of psychology that attempt to solve real- world problems, sometimes in an academic research setting and sometimes in a di- rect-service setting such as a clinical practice or a business organization. A theory that predicts breakfast cereal purchasing behavior may sound trivial, but think of the $$$. A theory that predicts suicide rates of college students is very important to a lot of people and can be used to plan interventions to prevent suicide.
Theories also tell us what’s important to look for in our research and the ap- propriate methods for performing the research. For example, Freudian theo- ries of personality tell us to look inside the person for internal events driven by basic needs such as sex and aggression, but social learning theory tells us to look outside the person at several kinds of experiences that can produce learning and personality characteristics. Freudian theory tells us that our research should focus on obtaining unconscious material via long-term psychoanalysis or projective methods (Rorschach “ink-blot” test). Social learning theory directs us to observ- ing the social environment of the child or adult and perhaps using questionnaires to measure personality traits.
