Theory crises in psychology – What can we learn from Structuralism?

Theory crises have been repeatedly identified throughout the history of psychology. In thisarticle, we explore the potential of the structuralism (or structuralist approach) to addresscurrent concerns about theory development, formalization, and evaluation. Althoughstructuralism has a rich history and has been applied across various scientific domains, it hasreceived relatively little attention in current psychological discourse. First, we review thehistorical background and conceptual foundations of structuralism. Second, we illustrate itsbasic concepts by schematically reconstructing two theories and point to additional examplesof theory (re)constructions. Finally, we compare the structuralist approach with several recentapproaches and discuss its advantages and limitations. We argue that structuralism offers apromising meta-theoretical framework that aligns with the goals of current approaches andcould contribute to the advancement of psychological theories.