Arocha’s scientific realism (2021) puts at the center of psychology the individual and their variability in behavior: the individual appears to be irreducible to what emerges from the analysis of aggregate data. According to this position, psychology’s aim is to uncover the mechanisms underlying the observable world. This entails adopting the cause-based approach of the natural sciences. Arocha’s article also refers to final causes and intentions and thus to the reason-based approach of the human sciences in contrast to that of the natural sciences. Thus, it is not clear whether the article aims to reduce the final causes to mechanical causes or supports the irreducibility of the former. Starting from these remarks, this comment will argue that the reason-based approach is preferable to the cause-based approach in order to have a scientific psychology. Adopting the reason-based approach also avoids the appeal to aggregate data by focusing upon the single case.

Arocha 的科学现实主义 (2021) 将个人及其行为的可变性置于心理学的中心：个人似乎无法简化为从汇总数据分析中得出的结论。根据这一立场，心理学的目标是揭示可观察世界背后的机制。这需要采用自然科学的基于原因的方法。Arocha 的文章还提到了最终原因和意图，因此也提到了人文科学相对于自然科学的基于理性的方法。因此，不清楚这篇文章的目的是将最终原因归结为机械原因，还是支持前者的不可归约性。从这些言论开始，该评论将争辩说，为了拥有科学的心理学，基于原因的方法比基于原因的方法更可取。采用基于原因的方法还通过关注单个案例来避免对汇总数据的诉求。