“Lewin tells us there is nothing as practical as a good theory; but how do you know if you have a good theory? In this excellent and innovative volume, social psychologists working on all the important problems—cognition, emotion, motivation, personality, culture, evolution, genes—join together to share their diverse insights on theory generation and theory testing. Useful for students and seasoned researchers alike, these well-written, easy-to-read chapters help you address such thorny problems as whether your data are at the right level of analysis to test your theory; why searching for a mediator can be futile; the importance of meaning-based explanations; why causality is so often elusive; whether your theory can both explain and predict; whether parsimony really matters; and the value of creating social-psychological theories that are both 'more micro' and 'more macro.'”

—Hazel Rose Markus, PhD, Davis-Brack Professor in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University


“One of social psychology’s key virtues is its emphasis on ideas, insights, and theories. This extremely useful book discusses classes of theories in social psychology (and beyond) from a broader perspective, and asks important questions about the strengths and weakness of theories. The volume reveals and illustrates how theories can serve different functions. It explores trade-offs in theory development—for example, between breadth and predictive ability—and draws attention to important theoretical challenges. This is a timely, thoughtful volume written by true leaders in the field.”

—Paul A. M. Van Lange, PhD, Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands


“Graduate training in psychology often emphasizes data analysis at the expense of conceptual analysis, and the next 'cool finding' at the expense of conceptual integration. Countering this trend, Theory and Explanation in Social Psychology aims to equip readers with the tools needed for sophisticated conceptual analysis and theory building. It will be a classic volume for years to come.”

—Norbert Schwarz, PhD, Provost Professor of Psychology and Marketing, University of Southern California