The alleged tradeoff between explanatory breadth and predictive power. (December 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Trafimow, David; Uhalt, Joshua
• Is Part Of: Theory & psychology. Volume 25:Number 6(2015:Dec.)
• Page Start: 833
• Page End: 840
• Publication Date: 2015-12
• Subjects: auxiliary assumptions -- explanatory breadth -- non-observational terms -- observational terms -- predictive power; Psychology -- Periodicals; 150.1
• DOI: 10.1177/0959354315591052
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0959-3543

Abstract

It is almost a cliché that as theories gain in explanatory breadth, they lose in predictive power and as they gain in predictive power, they lose in explanatory breadth. We acknowledge that it is easy to generate examples in psychology that seem to exemplify the tradeoff between explanatory breadth and predictive power. Nevertheless, we believe that the tradeoff is far less clear-cut than psychology researchers have understood. Our argument is based on the necessity to make auxiliary assumptions when traversing the distance between non-observational terms in theories and observational terms in empirical hypotheses.