devpsych-theory-and-hypotheses — independently scanned and version-tracked by SaferSkills.
SaferSkills independently audited devpsych-theory-and-hypotheses (Agent Skill) and scored it 100/100 (green). The audit ran 55 deterministic rules across Security, Supply Chain, Maintenance, Transparency, and Community; it found 0 high-severity and 0 lower-severity findings. The full rule-by-rule trace and per-finding evidence are below. Free, methodology-open.
Findings & checks · 0 flagged
Every scanned point with the score it earned and what moved between them.
First recorded scan — no prior version to compare against.
The primary manifest — the file an agent reads to learn what this artifact does.
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.
parent–child dynamics, scaffolding, cumulative risk) predicts the effect, and why it changes with age.
an age main effect, an age × condition interaction, a growth-curve shape (slope sign, acceleration), a within-person change, or a moderated trajectory.
expectation — not "age will be related to X."
(generated after seeing data) analyses, clearly, per JARS.
slope, or invariance failure that means the construct is not the same across ages.
| Hypothesis form | What it claims | Typical test |
|---|---|---|
| Age main effect | level differs by age | age as predictor (cross-sectional or wave) |
| Age × condition | manipulation effect differs by age | interaction term |
| Growth shape | within-person slope/curvature | latent growth / multilevel |
| Sensitive period | effect concentrated in an age window | nonlinear / spline age terms |
| Transactional | child→parent and parent→child over time | cross-lagged / RI-CLPM |
A longitudinal effortful-control package, written so the developmental claim and status are legible.
Mechanism: Sensitive, contingent parenting scaffolds the maturation of
effortful control; the scaffolding payoff grows across early childhood.
H1 (confirmatory, preregistered): Effortful control shows positive
within-person growth from age 4 to 8 (latent slope > 0).
H2 (confirmatory): Maternal scaffolding at wave 1 predicts a steeper slope
(scaffolding × time interaction, directional).
H3 (exploratory): Bidirectional child→parent effects across waves
(RI-CLPM) — labeled exploratory; preregister for a future sample.
Disconfirming: a flat/negative latent slope, or measurement non-invariance
across ages (the construct is not the same thing being "grown").been predicted. If you found it after seeing the data, say so and frame it for confirmation.
developmental claim is meant to apply, rather than implying it holds at every age and place.
| Reviewer pushback | Developmental Psychology fix |
|---|---|
| "Atheoretical / mechanism unclear" | state the developmental mechanism and why it changes with age in one or two sentences |
| "This is not developmental" | recast the hypothesis as change (slope/interaction/within-person), not a single-age correlation |
| "Looks HARKed" | show the preregistration; relabel post hoc trajectory shapes exploratory |
| "Claim outruns the design" | scale H1 to what the ages/waves can support; add a constraints-on-generality clause |
【Mechanism of change】the developmental process, briefly
【Developmental hypothesis form】age effect / age×condition / growth shape / within-person / moderated
【Hypotheses】directional, testable (H1, H2, …)
【Status】confirmatory (preregistered) vs exploratory
【Disconfirming evidence】trajectory/interaction/invariance result that counts against it
【Next】devpsych-literature-positioning../../resources/external_tools.md — preregistration templates and developmental-theory references../../resources/official-source-map.md — JARS reporting standards and scope~30 seconds. Free. No account. Every finding cites a rule and a line of evidence.