devpsych-theory-and-hypotheses
Use when stating the developmental theory and age-graded hypotheses for a Developmental Psychology (APA) manuscript. The journal rewards hypotheses that are explicitly about change (age effects, within-person trajectories, mechanisms) and a clean confirmatory/exploratory split under JARS. Structures the argument; it does not run analyses.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill devpsych-theory-and-hypotheses --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Developmental Theory & Hypotheses (devpsych-theory-and-hypotheses) Developmental Psychology rewards a **theory of change** and **age-graded, directional hypotheses**. Because the journal asks for a credible developmental claim and applies **JARS** reporting, the cardinal rule is: **state the developmental mechanism and the predicted form of change before the data**, and label exploratory analyses as exploratory. ## When to trigger - Writing the theoretical framing and hypotheses - Preparing a preregistration / pre-analysis plan for a developmental study - Reconciling what you predicted about change with what the trajectories show - A reviewer flagged the work as "atheoretical," "not developmental," "post hoc," or "HARKed" ## Build the developmental argument 1. **State the mechanism of change.** What developmental process (maturation, learning, transactional parent–child dynamics, scaffolding, cumulative risk) predicts the effect, and *why it changes with age*. 2. **Specify the form of the developmental hypothesis.** Be explicit about which of these you predict: an **age main effect**, an **age × condition interaction**, a **growth-curve shape** (slope sign, acceleration), a **wit
- When to trigger
- Build the developmental argument
- Age-graded hypothesis forms (name yours)
- Worked micro-example — theory to hypothesis status (illustrative)
- Avoiding HARKing in developmental work
- Theory-stage reviewer pushback and the venue fix
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the devpsych-theory-and-hypotheses skill do?
Use when stating the developmental theory and age-graded hypotheses for a Developmental Psychology (APA) manuscript. The journal rewards hypotheses that are explicitly about change (age effects, within-person trajectories, mechanisms) and a clean confirmatory/exploratory split under JARS. Structures the argument; it does not run analyses.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill devpsych-theory-and-hypotheses --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 984 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.