The Characteristics of a Good Reliable Theory
In Psychology it is very important to have all the elements of a good theory. All great ideas start as simple theories. These simple theories can lead to great and magnificant things in the future so it is essential for psychologists to understand the characteristics of a good reliable theory. The first element of a good theory is; it organizes a range of self reports and observations. The second and last element is; it implies prediction that anyone can use to check the theory or to derive practical applications. When psychologists test their theories in lab they use operational definitions of procedures to make sure there experiments were not effected by their own biases.
Below I posted a link to an online journal article that discusses how bias effects experiments in psychology. The article states that sometimes we see an outrageous amount of very similar findings because, once psychologists see the results of the original experiment they are more apt to expect that conclusion in their own experiment. The second link goes over what I talked about in regards to theories in the science world and what constitutes a good theory such as they are confirmed through repetition of experiments.
Links:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23055145
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory