During this week we have discussed what theory is. We
read two texts, the first one was about what theory is and the other one was
about what it is not. After reading these two texts, one of our tasks was to
try to explain (to a first year university student) what theory is. Even though
it can be quite hard to explain what theory is in a short amount of words, I
think I have a pretty good idea of what theory means. This is how I explained
it in my pre reflection text: ”I would explain theory as
a way to organize abstract thinking, making meaningful generalizations of a
phenomena or the world.” As an example of what theory is not I wrote
“hypotheses”. However, the meaning of a theory and a hypothesis is quite
similar. During the lecture I got a better understanding of the differences
between theory and hypotheses. You can have a hypothesis about something that
is unproven and speculative. Theory can have many different explanations, but
it involves a process of stepping back from that which you are viewing and is
about the connection between phenomena and explaining why something occur. I
think that the fact that the same object or event can have different theories
depending on from whose perspective we are watching is very interesting. That
is an evidence of that theory is something that we construct, it does not exist
by itself.
During the seminar we focused on which theory type had
been used in our self-picked papers. After discussing my paper during the
seminar I still believe that the theory type in my paper was mainly based on
type II, the explanation type. I learned that theories are seldom only one of
these theory types. Instead theories used in an article are hybrids, with
different level of complexity of different theory types in it. For example, an
article using an explanation theory type, usually use some analysis as well.
Over all I think this week´s topic was a lot more
easier to grasp and I thought it was very positive that we where able to choose
our own text to reed. In that way you can choose something that you are
interesting in and in the same time learn something.
Nice post! I had a hard time understanding what 'theory' really is. It's models, and theories (höhö), explanations, analyses, categories, descriptions, etcetcetc... UNTIL I read your explanation of what a 'theory' really is: "I would explain theory as a way to organize abstract thinking, making meaningful generalizations of a phenomena or the world.”. Now it's super clear and I really get it. Haha, not quite but I do understand it much better. Thank you, for sharing - I think it's a very good explanation.
SvaraRaderaThis explanation might work for me but make no sense to someone else, depending on experiences and perspectives. I think this can be interpreted in a way like you're describing the different theory types. Depending how you approach them you can basically categorize them in either category. (Not in the prediction section though, that seems to be impossible?! And I still don't understand the meaning of the fourth section...). However, I think (as you are writing at the end of your post) this theme is somehow easier to grasp than the two past themes. I was semi-panicking in the beginning for not understanding Kant and c:o but now I've drawn the conclusion that this, too, is part of the learing (i.e. gaining knowledge about how to gain knowledge about knowledge).
I agree with you that it's very nice to get to pick our own paperss to read. Your paper seemed interesting. However, I do think installing smart fridges and dishwashers will lower the use of electricity at homes and generally increase awaress on environmental issues. But, yeah, perhaps people need that information translated to: "You have saved 1000 h electricity which means you've saved $99999" in order to perceive the information in a 'good' way.
Well-written and thoughtful blog post!
Very good blog post. I think you have found a great way of understanding theory and you sure have helped me to be able to figure out what theory really is. Thank you and keep up the good work!
SvaraRadera