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Theories of Scientific Research - Coggle Diagram
Theories of Scientific Research
Theories should explain why things happen, rather than just describe or predict.
Theories are explanations of a natural or social behavior, event, or phenomenon.
In contrast, explanations require causations,
or understanding of cause-effect relationships.
stablishing causation requires three
conditions
correlations between two constructs,
temporal precedence the cause must
precede the effect in time
rejection of alternative hypotheses (through testing).
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.
Theory is not data, facts, typologies, taxonomies, or empirical findings.
Building blocks of a theory
David Whetten (1989) suggests that there are four building blocks of a theory:
constructs, propositions, logic, and boundary conditions/assumptions.
Constructs capture the "what" of theories
propositions capture the "how"
Logic represents the "why"
Boundary conditions/assumptions examines the "who, when, and where"
Constructs are abstract concepts specified at a high level of abstraction that are chosen
specifically to explain the phenomenon of interest.
Measurable representations of abstract
constructs are called variables.
scientific research proceeds along two planes: a theoretical plane and an empirical plane.
The empirical formulation of propositions, stated as relationships between
variables, is called hypotheses.
The third building block of a theory is the logic that provides the basis for justifying the positions to be postulated.
Propositions are associations postulated between constructs based on deductive logic. Propositions are stated in declarative form and should ideally indicate a cause-effect relationship.
Finally, all theories are constrained by assumptions about values, time, and space, and boundary conditions that govern where the theory can be applied and where it cannot be applied.
Attributes of a Good Theory
Logical consistency
Are the theoretical constructs, propositions, boundary conditions, and assumptions.
Explanatory power
How much does a given theory explain (or predict) reality?
Falsifiability
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
Parsimony examines how much of a phenomenon is explained with how few variables.
Approaches to Theorizing
The first approach is to build theories inductively based on observed patterns of events or behaviors
The second approach to theory building is to conduct a bottom-up conceptual analysis o identify different sets of predictors relevant to the phenomenon of interest using a predefined framework.
The third approach to theorizing is to extend or modify existing theories to explain a new context, such as by extending theories of individual learning to explain organizational learning.
The fourth approach is to apply existing theories in entirely new contexts by drawing upon the structural similarities between the two contexts.
Examples of Social Science Theories
Agency Theory.
to explain
two-party relationships (such as those between an employer and its employees,
Theory of planned behavior
the theory of planned
behavior (TPB) is a generalized theory of human behavior in the social psychology literature that can be used to study a wide range of individual behaviors.
Innovation diffusion theory.
Innovation diffusion theory (IDT) is a seminal theory in
the communications literature that explains how innovations are adopted within a population of potential adopters.
Elaboration Likelihood Model
he
elaboration likelihood model (ELM) is a dual-process theory of attitude formation or change in the psychology literature.
General Deterrence Theory.
GDT examines why certain individuals engage in deviant,
anti-social, or criminal behaviors. This theory holds that people are fundamentally rational (for
both conforming and deviant behaviors),nd that they freely choose deviant behaviors based
on a rational cost-benefit calculation.