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Theories in Scientific Research - Coggle Diagram
Theories in Scientific Research
Theories
are explanations of a natural or social behavior, event, or phenomenon.
Theories should explain why things happen, rather than just describe or predict. Explanations can be idiographic or nomothetic
Idiographic explanations
are those that explain a single situation or event in idiosyncratic detail
Nomothetic explanations
seek to explain a class of situations or events rather than a specific situation or event
Approaches to Theorizing
: Steinfeld and Fulk recommend four approaches used to build theories.
to conduct a bottom-up conceptual analysis to identify different sets of predictors relevant to the phenomenon of interest using a predefined framework
To extend or modify existing theories to explain a new context, such as by extending theories of individual learning to explain organizational learning.
To build theories inductively based on observed patterns of
events or behaviors
To apply existing theories in entirely new contexts by drawing upon the structural similarities between the two contexts.
Building Blocks of a Theory
There are four building blocks of a theory: constructs, propositions, logic, and boundary conditions/assumptions
Propositions
are associations postulated between constructs based on deductive logic. The empirical formulation of propositions stated as relationships between variables is called
hypotheses
.
Logic
provides the basis for justifying the propositions as postulated. Logic acts like a “glue” that connects the theoretical constructs and provides meaning and relevance to the relationships between these constructs.
Constructs
are abstract concepts specified at a high level of abstraction that are chosen specifically to explain the phenomenon of interest
All theories are constrained by
assumptions
about values, time, space, and boundary conditions that govern where the theory can be applied and where it cannot be applied.
Examples of Social Science Theories
Theory of Planned Behavior
is a generalized theory of human behavior in the social psychology literature that can be used to study a wide range of individual behaviors. It presumes that individual behavior represents conscious, reasoned choice and is shaped by cognitive thinking and social pressure.
Innovation diffusion theory
is a seminal theory in
the communications literature that explains how innovations are adopted within a population of potential adopters. The four key elements in this theory are innovation, communication channels, time, and social system.
Agency theory
is a classic theory in the organizational economics literature that explains two-party relationships (such as those between an employer and its employees) whose goals are not congruent with each other. Its goal is to specify optimal contracts and the conditions under which such contracts may help minimize the effect of goal incongruence
Elaboration Likelihood Model
is a dual-process theory of attitude formation or change in the psychology literature. It explains how individuals can be influenced to change their attitude toward a certain object, events, or behavior and the relative efficacy of such change strategies.
General Deterrence Theory
is both an explanation of crime and a method for reducing it. Theory examines why certain individuals engage in deviant, anti-social, or criminal behaviors.
Attributes of a Good Theory
Falsifiability
ensures that the theory is potentially disprovable, if empirical data does not match with theoretical propositions, which allows for their empirical testing by researchers
Parsimony
examines how much of a phenomenon is explained with how few variables.
Good theories have great
explanatory power,
which shpuld be better than rival theories.
The theoretical constructs, propositions, boundary conditions, and assumptions should be
logically consistent
with each other