There Is No Theory Crisis in Psychological Science

Abstract

Numerous scholars believe that there is a crisis in psychology because of the “poor quality” of our theories. However, we believe that it is misleading to suggest that psychology is going through a “theory crisis” because the major shortcomings of theories in the field have been recognized for decades. More fundamentally, there is nothing temporary about the current state theory in the field. Theories in psychology and other social and behavioral sciences will always fall short of traditional scientific benchmarks because of the complexity of the topics that are studied and the problem of generality. In our view, the most recent recommendations for improving theory in psychology are limited in feasibleness. Following many scholars, we suggest that psychology should turn more to formal modeling to increase rigor and improve prediction. However, while models are potentially of great value to the field, they are not theories. Researchers need to accept the limitations inherent to the study of the complexity of social and behavioral phenomena and stop the unhelpful criticism of our field. They also need to recognize the cumulativeness of psychological theory and the enormous body of knowledge of psychological processes, structures, and effects that have been generated by research. Although theories in our field are often sketchy, they are indispensable in providing explanations for important phenomena, suggesting interventions and treatments for critical social and behavioral problems and facilitating the development of predictive models.