Research Basics
Key Ideas
Key Ideas
Theory and Research
As social scientists, our goal is understand the social world. We do this by developing and testing theories that help us explain why certain things happen. In other words, theories help us comprehend variation, patterns and causality in our society.
Theory
“A system of interconnected ideas that condenses and organizes the knowledge about the social world and explains how it works.” (Neuman 2006)
Theories can range from big abstract ideas to more specific frameworks that address a particular situation. The bottom line is that theories help explain why certain social phenomena occur.
Examples of Theory
[
, Professor Bruno Breitmeyer, The Role of Theory]
But how is theory and research connected? Theories help us establish certain questions of our social world and it can suggest where to focus our scholarly gaze. The best way to understand this relationship between theory and research is through the wheel of science.
Previous 
