For example, students who do poorly in exams do so because they did not spend adequate time preparing for exams or that they suffer from nervousness, attention-deficit, or some other medical disorder. In contrast, nomothetic explanations seek to explain a class of situations or events rather than a specific situation or event. The explanations may be detailed, accurate, and valid, but they may not apply to other similar situations, even involving the same person, and are hence not generalizable. For example, you did poorly on an exam because: (1) you forgot that you had an exam on that day, (2) you arrived late to the exam due to a traffic jam, (3) you panicked midway through the exam, (4) you had to work late the previous evening and could not study for the exam, or even (5) your dog ate your text book. Idiographic explanations are those that explain a single situation or event in idiosyncratic detail. Scientific theories are different from theological, philosophical, or other explanations in that scientific theories can be empirically tested using scientific methods.Įxplanations can be idiographic or nomothetic.
Establishing causation requires three conditions: (1) correlations between two constructs, (2) temporal precedence (the cause must precede the effect in time), and (3) rejection of alternative hypotheses (through testing). In contrast, explanations require causations, or understanding of cause-effect relationships. For instance, market analysts predict fluctuations in the stock market based on market announcements, earnings reports of major companies, and new data from the Federal Reserve and other agencies, based on previously observed correlations. Note that it is possible to predict events or behaviors using a set of predictors, without necessarily explaining why such events are taking place. Theories should explain why things happen, rather than just describe or predict. More formally, a scientific theory is a system of constructs (concepts) and propositions (relationships between those constructs) that collectively presents a logical, systematic, and coherent explanation of a phenomenon of interest within some assumptions and boundary conditions (Bacharach 1989). Theories are explanations of a natural or social behavior, event, or phenomenon. In this chapter, we will examine what is a theory, why do we need theories in research, what are the building blocks of a theory, how to evaluate theories, how can we apply theories in research, and also presents illustrative examples of five theories frequently used in social science research. As we know from previous chapters, science is knowledge represented as a collection of “theories” derived using the scientific method.
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