COMM 305 1nd Edi-tionTheories of Theories: Interpretive PerspectivesOutline of Last Lecture 1. Historical background a. Empirical Observation b. Testable/Falsifiable c. Putting the “Post” in Post-Positivism 2. Metatheory Bingo a. Form: Casual statements about constructs. b. Goal: Explanation, prediction, and control. c. Commitments: Modified realists, modified objectivists, “leaky faucet.” d. Methods: Quantitative, empirical. e. Evaluation 3. ExamplesOutline of Current Lecture 1. Historical Background 2. Metatheory Bingo a. Form: Casual statements about constructs b. Goal: Explanations, prediction, and control. c. Commitments: Modified realist, modified objectivist, “leaky faucet.” d. Methods: Quantitative, empirical. e. Evaluation 3. Examples Current LecturePost scholarists looked at validity. Observations should match predictions. Good theory is where predictions are born out and where predictions work. When post positivist focus on scope they want generalizability. They want it to be as broad as possible. Post positivist scholars try to come up with universal theories - theories that apply to as many contexts as possible. If context is important the theory may need to include it as a variable. It is important to find out what is true across contexts. Post positivist work is etic in scope. The goal is to make generalizations across contexts. Construct with speech codes. Speech codes wants to help you understand a particular moment. The concern for scope is different.COMM 305 1nd Edi-tionParsimony - emphasize simplicity over complexity in general. If two theories have equal pow-ers than if both theories are accurate in there predictions post positivist scholars would prefer the simpler one. They want to explain what is happening most of the time. The Bell Curve. We want our theory to be accurate most of the time. That is good enough. Heuristic value is about new research. What counts as new research? It has to be new causal statements. New fundamental laws. Good observation is observation that has as little impact as possible. They let what is happening happen. They separate the known and the unknown. They didn’t want to change what was nat-urally happening. They put the camera out of site. Theories of Theories: Interpretive PerspectivesOutline 1. Historical Background 2. Metatheory Bing a. Form: Rich, holistic analysis and synthesis. b. Goal: Situated understanding. c. Commitments Important Theoretical Traditions Hermeneutics Meaning through “Text” We don’t want to understand what happens most of the time. We want to understand what doesn’t fit. The “hermeneutic Circle” Information about creators of the text. Theorist’s own knowledge - you bring framework thatfocuses on certain parts of the text. Applicable theory. Historical, political, cultural context. Text as a whole. Parts of the text. Our approach has to be erative. If we think of relationships like texts we will look at certain relationships. Interpretive messagesthat sill predict hermeneutics is a rich understanding of particular texts. You don’t want to know what is most common but have rich detail and know all cases. More than just the case. Relational dialectics theory Phenomenology Meaning through consciousness Understanding isn’t found through observation but through experience. Symbolic Interactionism Meaning arising from interactionCOMM 305 1nd
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