SELECT CONCEPTS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH 1
1.
Concepts: mental images or perceptions that may be
impossible to observe directly (ex.: justice, love, etc.) or referents that are readily
observable (ex: tree, table, chair, etc.).
2.
Variables: concepts that can take on more than one value.
3.
Constants: a concept that has only one and never changing
value.
4.
Proposition: a statement about one or more concepts. Depending
on the number of concepts involved or related in a proposition, the proposition
can be univariate, bivariate, or multivariate.
5.
Hypothesis: a proposition stated in a testable form and predicts
a particular relationship between two or more variables
6.
Empirical generalization: a relationship based on
induction or one constructed by observing the existence of a relationship in
one or few instances and then generalizing to claim that the observed
relationship holds in all or most cases
7.
Theory: body of thought believed to be ultimately testable
and that provides explanation and predicts social phenomena. A set of
statements that cannot be tested because a test would be prohibitively
expensive is a theory provided it is inherently testable. However, a statement
that is true by definition, inherently self-contradictory, or too vague to be
understandable is not a theory or is not adequate to be a theory. A set of
statements that does not seek to explain or predict anything is not a theory.
In contrast, the sociological classics are often called theories as are sets of
untestable statements when they are potentially testable.
8.
The
basic components of a theory are concepts or variables that are related in statements generally
known as propositions. In turn, a proposition may be
an axiom, a postulate, a theorem, an empirical
generalization,
or a hypothesis. A set or sets of
propositions may be interrelated to form theories, although some theories consist of only a
single proposition. Theories consisting of a single proposition such as a
hypothesis or an empirical generalization are called theoretical statements or
minitheories (Bailey 1994: 41).
Prof. Art Boquiren January 2004 based on Bailey 1994: 41, 41-48