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How to Build Social Science Theories
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How to Build Social Science Theories

December 2003 | 240 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
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As straightforward as its title, How to Build Social Science Theories sidesteps the well-traveled road of theoretical examination by demonstrating how new theories originate and how they are elaborated. Essential reading for students of social science research, this book traces theories from their most rudimentary building blocks (terminology and definitions) through multivariable theoretical statements, models, the role of creativity in theory building, and how theories are used and evaluated.
 
Preface
Jerald Hage
Foreword
 
1. Introduction: The Nature of Science
 
2. Theoretical Concepts: The Building Blocks of Theory
 
3. Theoretical Statements Relating Two Variables
 
4. Theoretical and Operational Linkages
 
5. Theoretical Statements Relating Three Variables
 
6. Theoretical Statements Relating Four or More Variables
 
7. Theoretical Models
 
8. Creativity and Theory Building
 
9. Using and Evaluating Theory
 
Appendix A: Guidelines for Preparing Tables and Figures
 
Appendix B: Acceptable Levels of Measurement for Various Statistics
 
References
 
Index
 
About the Authors

I have examined this book and it has been recommended to the Library for the 2016 dissertation proposal reading list. This book will be an excellent primer to assist students with the development of their MSc theses.

Dr Ronald Dyer
Marketing & Operations, Liverpool University
July 6, 2015
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Supplement for graduate research methods class.

Dr Steven Giles
Communication Dept, Wake Forest University
March 18, 2013
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Well-organized and useful way to present theory construction to my PhD students. The communication-related examples were genral enough that students from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines could understand them.

Dr Nancy McGehee
Hospitality Tourism Mgmt Dept, Virginia Polytechnic Institution / State University
October 4, 2010
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Pamela J. Shoemaker

Pamela Shoemaker (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1982) is the John Ben Snow Professor, an endowed research chair at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She is the author of Gatekeeping (Sage, 1991) and Mediating the Message: Theories of Influences on Mass Media Content (with Stephen D. Reese, Longman Publishers, 1996). As an internationally known scholar, Pamela is a past president (1995-1996) of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (AEJMC) and serves or has served on the editorial boards of many major journals in the mass communications field. More About Author

James William Tankard, Jr.

James W. Tankard, Jr., is the Jesse H. Jones Professor in Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He was born in Newport News, Va. He attended Virginia Tech, where he was co-editor of the student newspaper and received a B.S. in General Science. He enrolled at the University of North Carolina, where he received a master’s of journalism degree. He went to Stanford University, where he received a Ph.D. in communication. He has worked for The Associated Press in Charlotte, N.C., and for The Raleigh Times as a county government reporter. He has also held summer jobs and other short-term positions with the Newport News (Va.)... More About Author

Dominic L. Lasorsa

Dominic L. Lasorsa is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He received a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from St. Bonaventure University, a master of arts degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and a doctor of philosophy degree in communication from Stanford University.In college, Lasorsa served as editor-in-chief of his school newspaper, The Bonaventure, and he worked at the Suffolk (N.Y.) Sun as a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Editing Intern. Upon graduation, he entered the U.S. Air Force where he served as a radio communications specialist and a curriculum development... More About Author

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