THEORY

Question 1: Theory

Question 1: Theory

Theory

The theory comes from the Greek word 'theorein', which means 'watch'. The term was commonly used in the context of watching a play, which may explain why today the concept of theory can refer to something provisional or not completely real. However, the historical evolution of the term gave a more intellectual concept and began to apply to the ability to understand the reality by sensing these experiences and its expression through language. At present, a theory is a system composed of logic observations, axioms, and postulates, whose function is to state under what conditions, will develop certain assumptions. For this context is taken as an explanation of the appropriate means to develop predictions. From these theories, it is possible to deduce other facts or apply by certain rules and reasoning. A scientific theory, meanwhile, is the approach of a deductive abstract system, forming a scientific description of a set of observations or experiments. Scientific theory is based on hypotheses or assumptions verified by scientists.

Views on Constitution of Theory

There are different views that constitutes a theory. This includes the way of Illustration for different phenomena (Harlow, 2009). In literature, the definitions of the theory varies from simple and concise to the complex and elaborate. For example, Gelso (2006) recently noted that the theoretical explanation relationship between two or more variables claimed. Henderikus (2007) argues that the theory can be defined as a set of logically organized by law or relationships, which are explained in the field. In addition, Sutton and Becoming (1995) essentially argues that the theory should answer the question why. Wacker (1998) states that the definition of the theory consists of four components: a definition, domain, relationships, and states that predict response to natural language questions about who, what, when, where, how, what should, could and should be.

Other theorists, such as Dubin (1978) and Wacker (2008) indicates a another virtues and the criteria of a good theory, including testing capabilities, falsification, prediction, explanation, thrift, internal consistency, conservatism, and the empirical level of risk, creating new models and hypotheses, and abstraction.

As with many substantive topics, the academic literature on what is a theory? offers a plethora of definitions, opinions, and criteria. Notwithstanding the many answers to this question, points of view are conflicting and there is little agreement and a lack of consensus on its definition (Henderikus, 2007), its quintessential nature (Corley & Gioia, 2011) the criteria for establishing a good theory (Gelso, 2006), the definitive purpose of theory and the best methodology for theory-building. In fact, according to Sutton and Staw (1995), the lack of consensus on exactly what theory is may explain why it is so difficult to develop strong theory in the behavioral sciences. One of the primary reasons for this state of affairs is that theorists and researchers approach scholarly activity from different worldviews and paradigms (Torraco, 2002).

Nature of theories

A theory is a logical set of interrelated statements that explain a certain part of the ...