In context, it's top-down vs. bottom-up: Theory driven: "I think anxiety and depression are fundamentaly different, because of writings of Freud, Foo, and Bar"

In context, it's top-down vs. bottom-up: Theory driven: "I think anxiety and depression are fundamentaly different, because of writings of Freud, Foo, and Bar" Empirical: factor analysis of test data suggests anxiety and depression may actually be a single factor, perhaps there is a single biological mechanism underlying both?"