04:192:200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Falsifiability
What is Theory?
...and how does it fit into communication
Lay vs Scholarly Theories
- All theories
- Speculation, conjecture, informed guesses, and intuition about how and why
things work as they do
- Lay/Commonsense theories
- Individuals formulate to make sense of their worlds
- May or may not be “good” theory
- Working Theories
- Guidelines for behavior in specific contexts
- More in line with the commonsense/life theories
- Example:
- Looking at theories in the workplace and why certain things happen
- Scientific/Scholarly Theories
- Similar to lay and working theories, but:
- Based on research/evidence beyond personal experience
- More formally specified
- Tested and validated/questioned rigorously
- Usually apply more broadly/generally
- More specifically define the concepts and the relationships between
things and meanings
What is Theory?
- Comes from the Greek term meaning “a view” or “to see”
- There is no “correct” definition
- Definitions of theory will depend largely on the assumptions of the theorist
- There are point of agreement and disagreement/convergence or divergence
- Communication theories share common goals “of attempting to answer questions
regarding how and why communicative processes work in the ways they do”
(Milley, 2005, p.24)
Points of Convergence
- Theory is an abstraction
of the social world
- Not the same as empirical observation
- Theory are the more general explanations of the things you observe
- Theories are constructions of people
- Theories are made by trained experts and scholars in these areas
- Theories are widely viewed as both lenses to help us see the world and mirrors that
reflect the world around us
- Only as good as they are practical
- “There is nothing so practical as a good theory”
Document Summary
Speculation, conjecture, informed guesses, and intuition about how and why things work as they do. Individuals formulate to make sense of their worlds. May or may not be good theory. More in line with the commonsense/life theories. Looking at theories in the workplace and why certain things happen. Similar to lay and working theories, but: More specifically define the concepts and the relationships between. Comes from the greek term meaning a view or to see . Definitions of theory will depend largely on the assumptions of the theorist. Communication theories share common goals of attempting to answer questions. There are point of agreement and disagreement/convergence or divergence regarding how and why communicative processes work in the ways they do (milley, 2005, p. 24) Theory is an abstraction of the social world. Theory are the more general explanations of the things you observe. Theories are made by trained experts and scholars in these areas.
