Anatomy of a Psychological Theory: Integrating Construct-Validation and Computational-Modeling Methods to Advance Theorizing

Discussions about the replicability of psychological studies have primarily focused on improving research methods and practices, with less attention paid to role well-specified theories in facilitating production reliable empirical results. The field is currently need clearly articulated steps theory specification development, particularly regarding frameworks that may generalize across different fields psychology. Here we focus two approaches development are typically associated distinct traditions: computational modeling construct validation. We outline points convergence divergence between them illuminate anatomy a scientific psychology—what should contain how it be interrogated revised through iterative theory-development processes. propose these can used complementary ways increase quality explanations precision predictions offered by theories.