Paul's post on the various meanings/definitions of theory struck a chord
as I find that psych folks and text authors contribute to the confusions
between some of these meanings and the idea of a scientific theory. It's no
wonder that lay people hear the word theory and think naturally of everyday
meanings. Some of us talk about theory development in our classes or texts,
but this goes out the window when our texts or presentations use everything
from pop-psych ideas to social movements as exemplars of theories. As the
term is easily misunderstood, many of us feel it better to focus on ways of
evaluating the ideas/perspectives and how they may be _developed_ into
viable scientific viewpoints. This can lead more easily into examining and
differentiating empirical versus non-empirical, scientific and
pseudoscientific "theories," as has been done with creationism versus
evolutionary theory. While scientific theory development is sorely needed
in our field, the integrative development and spelling-out of formal links
between concepts appears ignored in many of the popular or controversial
ideas we see in our journals. Evolutionary theory has become more
paradigmatic for the biological sciences, but I doubt that psych has such
integrative frameworks. Do such ideas from Jung, to Skinner to Harris all
count as theories? All count as scientific theories? Or are they at
different levels of theory development, with some more adequately
scientific? While I try not to further befuddle my students, I usually talk
of Jung's ideas as interesting speculation, Skinner's as illustrating more
systematic inductive inference, and Harris' ideas as at the beginning of
theory development (where they will probably stay). How do others deal with
the presentation of "theories" in class? Gary Peterson
Gerald (Gary) L. Peterson, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychology
Saginaw Valley State University
University Center, MI 48710
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
1-517-790-4491
Paul Brandon wrote:
>Definitions from Merriam-Webster:
>=================================
>
>THEORY
>======
>1 : the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another
>2 : abstract thought : SPECULATION
>3 : the general or abstract principles of a body of fact, a science, or an
>art <music theory>
>4 a : a belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of
>action <her method is based on the theory that all children want to learn>
>b : an ideal or hypothetical set of facts, principles, or circumstances --
>often used in the phrase in theory <in theory, we have always advocated
>freedom for all>
>5 : a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of
>principles offered to explain phenomena <wave theory of light>
>6 a : a hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation b : an
>unproved assumption : CONJECTURE
>c : a body of theorems presenting a concise systematic view of a subject
><theory of equations>
>synonym see HYPOTHESIS
