Questions a satisfying developmental theory would answer: the scope of a complete explanation of development...

The good theory of human development is a complete theory, a theory that addresses the 10 points cited above. While the good theory cannot be about a set of a priori and objective facts, it is nevertheless about a set of facts that control the degree to which theory and interpretation correspond to them and are also consistent with other propositions in the theory and with other theories. Correspondence and consistency are compatible attributes of the good theory and are achieved through a dialectical exchange between a community of investigators that demands, in the end, that some theories and accounts be discarded because they fail to conform to the facts, as they were established in the theory, or because they lead to a reductio absurdum with regard to other established propositions. They fail, in other words, because they fail to sustain a sentiment of rationality.