Theories and Models in Psychology
Psychology is built on two foundational tools for understanding behaviour: theories and models.
A testable, general explanation for behaviour or mental processes.
A simplified representation of a process or structure, used to make complex systems easier to study.
Both serve the same purpose: they organise what we know and point us toward what to investigate next. A theory without a way to test it is not science, and a model that cannot be refined is not useful.
Social identity theory proposes that people categorise themselves and others into groups, identify with their own group, and then compare that group favourably against others. This leads to in-group favouritism and out-group discrimination: testable predictions that researchers can examine in controlled conditions.
The multi-store memory model represents memory as a sequence of stores: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. It is a simplification, but it generates hypotheses about encoding, storage, and retrieval that can be tested experimentally.