Chapter Three Building and Testing Theory

Building Theory Human Nature –Determinism: assumes that human behavior is governed by forces beyond individual control, usually the twin forces of biology and environment. Whatever we do is the inevitable result of genetic inheritance, environmental influences, or a combination of the two.

Building Theory Human Nature –Free Will: Theorists who believe in free will assume that individuals interpret experiences and create meanings, which then guide what they think, believe, say, feel, and do. These theorists reject the idea that human behavior is an unthinking automatic response to conditions and stimuli around us.

Building Theory Human Nature –Free Will (continued): Those who believe in human will do not think the fact that will is constrained means it is nonexistent. Instead, they argue that, within the constraints of biological and social influences, there remains substantial latitude for choice about what we believe and do and to shape out own destinies.

Building Theory Epistemology: a branch of philosophy that deals with the question of how we know what it is we believe we know. –The continuum of epistemological assumptions ranges from belief in an objective truth that humans can discover to belief that humans create meanings and therefore many meanings are possible.

Building Theory The External Epistemology –“discovering truth” –Objectivism: the belief that reality is material and external to the human mind. –Those who believe in a singular, objective truth assume that it is independent of human feeling and motives and is discovered through direct observation. –Objectivity is the quality of being uninfluenced by values, biases, personal feelings, and other subjective factors when perceiving material reality.

Building Theory The Internal Epistemology –“creating meaning” –A belief in multiple views of reality, no one of which is intrinsically more true than the other. They believe that what we call reality is a subjective interpretation rather than an objective truth. –“standpoint theory” –Can different racial/gender groups have the same knowledge of what racism is and means?

Building Theory Epistemologies structure theories and research methods –External Epistemology = Behaviorism Behaviorism: a form of science that focuses on observable behaviors and that assumes meanings, motives, and other subjective phenomena either don’t exist or are irrelevant. –Internal Epistemology = Humanism Humanists see external behaviors as the outward signs of mental and psychological processes. For them, what we perceive, think, and feel directly affects what we do and what we assume it means. Thus, the reasons for human behavior lie with what happens inside of us.

Testing Theory Hypotheses vs. Research Questions –Hypothesis: A statement that asserts a testable prediction concerning a relationship between phenomena. –Research Questions: A question concerning a relationship between phenomena. –Conceptual vs. Operational definition of terms.

Testing Theory Quantitative Research: A method of inquiry that depends upon the conversion of observations into numerical values in order for interpretation to take place. –Surveys –Experiments –Content Analysis –Descriptive vs. Inferential Statistics

Testing Theory Qualitative Research: Seeks to understand the character of experience, particularly how people perceive and make sense of their communication experience. –In Depth Interviews –Ethnography –Textual Analysis –No statistics.

Testing Theory???? Critical Research –An increasing number of communication scholars believe that research should not be confined to the ivory tower but should make a real difference in the lives of human beings. –These critical theorists aren’t satisfied to understand what happens in communication or even the meanings of various communication practices. Instead, they see the goal of their research as critiquing communication practices that oppress, marginalize, or otherwise harm people.

Testing Theory???? Critical Research –“Traditional scientific method can’t tell you where you ought to go, unless where you ought to go is a continuation of where you were going in the past.” –Pirsig (1972)

Testing Theory???? Critical Race Theory begins with the notion that racism is normal, not aberrant, in American society, and because it is so enmeshed in the fabric of the U.S. social order, it appears both normal and natural to people in this society. (Denzin & Lincoln, The Landscape of Qualitative Research).

Testing Theory???? Thus the work of the liminal perspective is to reveal the ways that dominant perspectives distort the realities of the other in an effort to maintain power relations that continue to disadvantage those who are locked out of the mainstream. This liminal perspective is the condition of the dominant order’s self-definition that can empower us to free ourselves from the categories and prescriptions of our specific order and from its generalized horizon of understanding.

Evaluating Theory Validity –Internal: The degree to which the design and methods used to test a theory actually measure what they claim to. –External: The generalizability of a theory across contexts, especially ones beyond the confines of experimental situations. Reliability Significance