Theory

Bo asks: I am a bit unclear about the development of a theory for a dissertation. Is it required, or is the development of hypothesis(es) adequate? Also, when developing a theory, when should the theory be introduced—in the prospects, before the research, or after the research has been completed and analyzed? And finally, can a good theory in the social sciences still be probability based? For example, theories starting with "People will generally..." or "it is more likely that..."?  One more while I am on a roll :) For the purposes of a dissertation, does every aspect of a proposed theory have to be tested by past research or research in the dissertation? For example, can a dissertation theory make a prediction that might be suggested by research but has not been tested? 

Lots of questions, Bo! First, you are not required to develop your own theory in a dissertation, and I would strongly discourage a student from doing so. Developing a theory is difficult and requires validation with multiple studies. Instead, consider modifying an existing theory AFTER you have analyzed the data. So you could say something like " Theory X predicted A and B should have occurred in the present study. However, A and C occurred, perhaps theory X needs to be modified to allow for such outcomes."

A good theory should lead to predictions and be testable. This is the problem that we see with some of the older theories - they cannot directly be tested (an example is Maslow's theory of hierarchy of needs). So, I am not sure how to answer your probability question, most theories could be considered probability ones in that they wouldn't be correct 100% of the time. 

The purpose of including theories in the dissertation is to see what they predict and how your results fit those predictions. Think of it as validity testing, if your results were totally different than the predictions, than we would question the validity of your study. And absolutely a dissertation can test aspects of a theory that have not been previously researched.

Bo, if you don't feel that I have really answered your questions, please let me know and I will try it again. J 

Next time we will look at external IRBs. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu