Theory and Methods Essay ⋆ Sociology Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Theories reside in a realm of ideas, establishing meanings and organizing our beliefs about reality. Theories are expressed through sets of abstract, general, logically related statements. In contrast, methods pertain to concrete objects in the natural world which, in sociology, usually implies one of two things: (1) research methods – procedures enacted in the natural world in service of recording observations; (2) data analysis methods – manipulations of recorded observations for the purpose of summarizing empirical observations or making inferences about them. Data analysis methods include a large palette of qualitative and quantitative techniques. When formulated without the benefit of strong ties to the natural world, theories should be regarded with much skepticism and deserve only highly provisional support. By the same token, when applied without the benefit of a clear theoretical purpose, methods are no more useful to us than unlabeled snapshots of unfamiliar scenes.

Although it receives relatively little attention in the general sociological literature, the theory-method interface is critical. That is because we want our theories to be relevant to the natural world in order to increase our understanding and our ability to intervene in desired ways. Although theories and methods are intimately connected, sociological writing at times obscures important distinctions between theoretical statements and observation statements. These are separate spheres of operation, each with its own rules and standards.

The interface of theory and methods – where elements in the theoretical realm connect to elements of the natural world – becomes most apparent when theories are written simply and clearly, and their connections to objects in the natural world are unequivocal. There are three essential components to the theory-methods connection: (1) statements in the theory, (2) statements that link terms in the theory with observations, and (3) statements about particular observations. Each is described next.

Theories employ conditional statements, often called propositions or assumptions, to make general claims that can be subjected to analysis. For example, ”If a group has a role structure, then that group has a system of rewards and punishments.” The general form of this proposition is that of a conditional statement: If the first part is true, then it is claimed that the second part will be true as well.
Terms in propositions must be connected to actual empirical phenomena. The terms themselves are relatively simple abstract constructs. It is this abstractness that permits theories to be general, i.e., applicable to a wide range of empirical cases. So a highly specific observation statement such as ”The Chess Club now active at Fairview High School has three elected positions” may serve as an instance (often called an ”operationalization”) of the ”group with role structure” part of the proposition. ”The Chess Club now active at Fairview High School has trophies for outstanding performance, and rescinds the membership of any member caught cheating” could be an instance of having a ”system of rewards and punishments.” Definitions of theoretical terms, such as ”role structure,” ”reward,” and ”punishment” in the example above, guide this process. Unless terms are clearly defined, researchers cannot be certain whether the theory has been applied correctly. At the same time, definitions must be broad enough so that the theory applies in a wide range of cases. Good theories strike a useful balance between specificity and generality.
Now that we have connected theoretical terms and observable phenomena, we can derive testable hypotheses. In our example: ”If the Chess Club at Fairview High School has multiple elected and appointed positions, then it will have trophies for outstanding performance and rescind the membership of any member caught cheating.” Ideally, this would be just one of many hypotheses for a variety of empirical settings that could be derived from the theory and tested.

With the theory having guided the choice of empirical indicators, research methods now can be used to gather data such as using experiments, surveys, participant observation, text analysis, or other means. The choice of research methods, in conjunction with the specific questions the researcher would like to answer, together determine the most appropriate data analysis methods.

Bibliography:

Cohen, B. P. (1989) Developing Sociological Knowledge: Theory and Method, 2nd edn. Nelson Hall, Chicago.
Kerlinger, F. N. & Lee, H. B. (2000) Foundations of Behavioral Research, 4th edn. Wadsworth, Belmont, CA.
Schutt, R. K. (2004) Investigating the Social World, 4th edn. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, CA.