Although there are many definitions of and disagreements about what counts as theory, this term will be used
in an approach-neutral way to refer to an “empirical claim.” This usage is consistent with Kuhn and Pearsall
(2000) who outline four possible uses of the term theory or “theoretical claim,” which range from least stringent
such as category and event claims (e.g., “this plant died”) to most stringent such as causal or explanatory claims
which include an explanation of why the claim is correct (e.g., “this plant died because of inadequate sunlight”).
The commonality among theoretical claim types is that “although they differ in complexity, each . . . is potentially
falsifiable by empirical evidence” (p. 117).