A decade of theory as reflected in Psychological Science (2009–2019)

McPhetres, Jonathon; Albayrak‐Aydemir, Nihan; Mendes, Ana Barbosa; Chow, Elvina C.; Gonzalez-Marquez, Patricio; Loukras, Erin; Maus, Annika; O’Mahony, Aoife; Pomareda, Christina; Primbs, Maximilian; Sackman, Shalaine L.; Smithson, Conor J. R.; Volodko, Kirill

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0247986

Cited by 42 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(25 reference statements)

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“…Future researchers in PP and postdisciplinary studies can explore what the state of the art is for them as being conducted in psychology and other disciplines. For example, McPhetres et al (2021) found in an analysis of articles in a flagship psychology journal that the word "theory" only appears in round about half of all manuscripts, and that only 15.33% of manuscripts indicated that it is about testing of theories. They concluded that the majority of studies are not theory-driven and can thus not contribute to cumulative growth in theories.…”

Section: Theory and Methods Embedded In Meta-assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the “Third Wave of Positive Psychology”: Challenges and Opportunities for Future Research

Wissing

2022

Front. Psychol.

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The positive psychology (PP) landscape is changing, and its initial identity is being challenged. Moving beyond the “third wave of PP,” two roads for future research and practice in well-being studies are discerned: The first is the state of the art PP trajectory that will (for the near future) continue as a scientific (sub)discipline in/next to psychology (because of its popular brand name). The second trajectory (main focus of this manuscript) links to pointers described as part of the so-called third wave of PP, which will be argued as actually being the beginning of a new domain of inter- or transdisciplinary well-being studies in its own right. It has a broader scope than the state of the art in PP, but is more delineated than in planetary well-being studies. It is in particular suitable to understand the complex nature of bio-psycho-social-ecological well-being, and to promote health and wellness in times of enormous challenges and changes. A unique cohering focus for this post-disciplinary well-being research domain is proposed. In both trajectories, future research will have to increase cognizance of metatheoretical assumptions, develop more encompassing theories to bridge the conceptual fragmentation in the field, and implement methodological reforms, while keeping context and the interwovenness of the various levels of the scientific text in mind. Opportunities are indicated to contribute to the discourse on the identity and development of scientific knowledge in mainstream positive psychology and the evolving post-disciplinary domain of well-being studies.

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Section: Theory and Methods Embedded In Meta-assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the “Third Wave of Positive Psychology”: Challenges and Opportunities for Future Research

Wissing

2022

Front. Psychol.

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“…By describing how, and in some cases why, phenomena occur in the world, theories productively organize empirical literature, differentiating promising from not-sopromising directions for future research that would otherwise be difficult to discern without theory (McPhetres et al, 2021;Szollsi & Donkin, 2021). Theories have two predominant aspects: description and explanation, with individual theories varying in their emphasis on each (McGann & Speelman, 2020).…”

Section: What Is Theory and How Is It Developed Evaluated And Integra...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, theory development has been relatively underscrutinized compared to the field's focus on methods (Fielder, 2017;Wentzel, 2021). Scholars who have looked deeply at psychology's use of theory have lamented the paucity of clear descriptions of theory development (Eronen & Bringmann, 2021), the scarcity of clear connections between theory and the empirical work published in psychology journals, (McPhetres et al, 2021), the difficulty in evaluating the adequacy of theories (Gervais, 2021), the oftenunchecked proliferation of multiple seemingly similar theories about the same phenomena (Eronen & Romeihn, 2020;Mischel, 2008), and the inequitable prominence of WEIRD (i.e., Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic;Henrich et al, 2010) and able-ist (Emery & Anderman, 2020) perspectives in psychology scholarship. Quite simply, more just, effective, reliable, and beneficial psychology scholarship and practice requires reform focused not just on methods and anti-racist practices, but also on theory development and use.…”

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confidence: 99%

What Can Educational Psychology Learn From, and Contribute to, Theory Development Scholarship?

Greene

2022

Educ Psychol Rev

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One of the field of psychology’s stated goals is to produce scholarship with findings that benefit the world. Over the last 10 years, psychology scholarship and its presumed societal benefits have been called into question due to the field’s history of questionable research practices, racism, and epistemic oppression. Calls for methodological, ethical, and practical reforms are essential to building a psychological science that is just, effective, reliable, and beneficial. Recently, these calls have been complemented by a push to reform how theory is developed and used in psychology. There is great need for better understanding and implementation of theory development, both in the field of psychology broadly as well as in its subdisciplines, including educational psychology. At the same time, educational psychologists have much to contribute to the tripartite calls for methodological, ethical, and theory reforms. In this paper, I explore theory development in psychology by discussing the importance of developing both the descriptive and explanatory aspects of theory as well as the need to refine how theory is evaluated and integrated. Then, I review how innovations and practices in educational psychology can inform the broader theory reform movement in psychology writ large. Finally, I identify important future directions for further advancing theory reform in psychology, including addressing ableism in the field, increasing the field’s hospitability for theory revision, furthering theory development transparency, and more deeply integrating theory development into preparation programs.

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“…An integral part of science is testing theories. Many papers in the social sciences are phrased as attempts to test theories (though see McPhetres et al, 2020). A key inferential tool used for this purpose is statistics, and in particular significance testing.…”

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confidence: 99%

Testing theories with Bayes factors

Dienes¹

2021

Preprint

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Bayes factors are a useful tool for researchers in the behavioural and social sciences, partly because they can provide evidence for no effect relative to the sort of effect expected. By contrast, a non-significant result does not provide evidence for the H0 tested. So, if non-significance does not in itself count against any theory predicting an effect, how could a theory fail a test? Bayes factors provide a measure of evidence from first principles. A severe test is one that is likely to obtain evidence against a theory if it were false; that is, to obtain an extreme Bayes factor against the theory. Bayes factors show why hacking and cherry picking degrade evidence; how to deal with multiple testing situations; and how optional stopping is consistent with severe testing. Further, informed Bayes factors can be used to link theory tightly to how that theory is tested, so that the measured evidence does relate to the theory.

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A decade of theory as reflected in Psychological Science (2009–2019)

Cited by 42 publications

References 30 publications

Beyond the “Third Wave of Positive Psychology”: Challenges and Opportunities for Future Research

Beyond the “Third Wave of Positive Psychology”: Challenges and Opportunities for Future Research

What Can Educational Psychology Learn From, and Contribute to, Theory Development Scholarship?

Testing theories with Bayes factors

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