Theory and Research Design

One of the common issues students have when they are beginning to think about doing research is how all of the pieces that are necessary fit together. Do you begin with the research design and try to find a study to fit it? What is the deal with theories, where do they fit into the thinking? There actually is a way to clarify these pieces. Let's start even broader by talking about reviewing the literature. What does that mean? It means finding recent articles on your general topic of interest and beginning to read. Notice what theories the authors discuss when talking about the topic. After you have read 10 articles or so on the topic, stop and evaluate. Are there consistent issues that are mentioned? What theories have been discussed, did the authors make predictions for their study based on the theory? If you are not seeing any predictions or discussions about how the theory is impacted by the new findings- you need to look for a new theory. You need to be able to make predictions based on the theory you will finally use.

So let's say you have narrowed the search down to two theories. Now I want you to go back to the library and find some review articles using those theories. By the time you have read those you should have good understanding of the theory and how it relates to your topic of interest. Think about the variables other researchers have used related to your topic and how the theory predicts things will develop. Next time, I will work through an example of what I discussed today. 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! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu