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A Primer in Theory Construction By Paul Davidson Reynolds

A Primer in Theory Construction By Paul Davidson Reynolds. - Typologies Organize and Categorize things. - Prediction and Explanation Predicting events that will occur in the future and explaining events that have occurred in the past. 1.For what should scientific knowledge be useful?

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A Primer in Theory Construction By Paul Davidson Reynolds

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  1. A Primer in Theory ConstructionBy Paul Davidson Reynolds - Typologies Organize and Categorize things. - Prediction and Explanation Predicting events that will occur in the future and explaining events that have occurred in the past. 1.For what should scientific knowledge be useful? “To explain why things happen”

  2. Goals of Science • Providing typologies • Explanations • Predictions • Sense of understanding

  3. - Sense of Understanding “Is provided only when the casual mechanisms that link changes in one or more concepts (the independent variables) with changes in other concepts (dependent variables) have been fully described”. - Control - Theory “Well-Supported empirical generalizations or laws” “An Interrelated sets of definitions, axioms, and propositions”

  4. Desirable Characteristics of scientific knowledge • Abstractness • independence of time and space • Intersubjectivity • agreement about meaning among relevant scientists • meaning • explicitness • logical Rigor • Empirical relevance • can be compared to empirical findings

  5. 2. The Idea: conceptualization of the phenomenon Kuhn Paradigms 1. represents radical new conceptualization of the phenomena 2. suggests new research strategy or methodological procedure 3. tends to suggest new problems for solutions -

  6. Freud’s Theory of Personality - Instincts and Energy - Structure of the Personality - Personality Development - Research Procedure

  7. Paradigms • Example: Heider’s Balance Theory • Example: Two Conceptions of Status Structures: • - Elitist • - Pluralistic • Paradigm Variations • Variations on the Freudian Conception of Personality • Variations on Heider’s Balance Theory • Identifying Paradigms

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