Theme 3, Part 1: Research and Theory

For this theme I picked a paper from the journal Computers in Human Behavior. The paper is called Understanding families´ motivations for sustainable behaviours by Mary L. Barreto a Agnieszka Szóstek, Evangelos Karapanos, Nuno J. Nunes, Lucas Pereira and Filipe Quintal.

A summary of the journal Computers in Human Behavior:

Computers in Human Behavior is a scholarly journal dedicated to examining the use of computers from a psychological perspective.  It addresses both the use of computers in psychiatry, psychology and related disciplines as well as the psychological impact of computer use in society, groups and individuals.

A summary of the paper Understanding families´ motivations for sustainable behaviors:

This paper aim to understand families´ motivations for sustainable behaviors. The writers mean that though the interest in eco-feedback technologies has peaked over the last decade, research increasingly highlights that simply providing information to individuals regarding their consumption behaviors does not guarantee behavior change. Therefor research has been made in an attempt to characterize individuals´ latent motivations that drives sustainable behaviors. The writers of this paper aim to expand that body of work by analysing such motivations in the context of families. This is done be reporting findings from 15 families who used an eco-feedback interface over a period of two years. The study shows that motivations for sustainable behaviors are not only rooted in individual´ environment concerns. They also argue that in order for eco-feedback technologies to attain long-lasting behavioral change they need to address basic family needs that go beyond individual ideals of pro-environmental behavior.

The study involved semi-structured interviews with 15 families. To get more reliable results the number of interviewed families could be higher. Other than the interviews the study is based on existing scholar literature. The writers are making a summary of the existing foundings in the area and the writers own foundings are quite small. Thus, the orientation of the study is interesting since I it looking at how motivations differ between different family types: families with or without children, and families with younger and older children. Their founding is also something to think about; that you should focus on families’ needs rather than individuals´ when attaining sustainable behavioral change.

1.     Briefly explain to a first year university student what theory is, and what theory is not.

It is pretty hard to explain what theory is. According to Gregor, The Nature of Theory in Information Systams, there are five different types of theories: (1) theory for analyzing, (2) theory for explaining, (3) theory for predicting, (4) theory for explaining and predicting and (5) theory for design and action. Though this is just different types of theory, we can learn what characteristics theory have and what it is used for.

I would explain theory as a way to organize abstract thinking, making meaningful generalizations of a phenomena or the world. As a tool in supporting a theory we can use diagrams, tables, data, hypotheses and references to establish knowledge. All those things are not, however, theory per se.

2.     Describe the major theory or theories that are used in your selected paper. Which theory type (see Table 2 in Gregor) can the theory or theories be characterized as?

I think that the theory in my selected paper can be characterized an explanation theory (II) according to Gregor´s definition of different theory types. The paper contains two tables and two diagrams showing facts of the families’ energy consumption and characteristics of the families, collected from the interviews. Therefor the paper says, “what is” and “why”. The theory provides explanations but does not aim to predict the future in the researched area.

3.     Which are the benefits and limitations of using the selected theory or theories?

The benefits of the explanation theory type is that it put forward how it is right now within the research area, and why this is. It does not say anything about what we should do with this information or what the information will mean for the future. That is up to future researcher to investigate. On the positive side, this can contribute with an increased interest from the reader of doing further research within the area.