Internal Dialectics(within the relationshipExternal Dialectics(between the relationship and the community)COMM 305 1st EditionExam 1 Study Guide Lectures 1-11Introductions (August 26 - Lecture 1)1. a) What is this course about? Theory. b) What is theory? Theory is not a simple question to answer. A theory is an explanation. A theory is a story. A theory is a map. Sometimes maps are wrong.2. What is meta-theory? Theory about theory. 3. Why is the fact that theory is an imperfect explanation (i.e., incomplete story) inherent to theory? The principle of abstraction is important. They are not what they are describing but an abstraction. Theories are imperfect abstractions. They are representations of what we are trying to explain. Conceptualizing Theory and Communication (August 28, 30, September 2nd Lectures 2-4)1. a) Explain how the phrase, "The map is not the territory" is relevant for this class. Maps are not always correct. The theory does not always match what is happening. Page 22 Chapter 2 b) In what sense is a theory an abstraction? A theory is an abstraction in that it is not perfect but tries to help explain the theory. c) Are theories perfect representations of the empirical world? Explain. No but they may help us understand the real world better.d) Are imperfect representations useless? No. They may be good for some things and they can still help. 2. a) What are the two processes through which we build both lay and formal theories? Induction and deduction. b) Define induction and deduction. Induction is going from the real world into the abstract. Deduction is going from the real world to test it??c) How do these processes of theory building connect the abstract and empirical worlds? Induction and deduction. The abstract world of theory and the world of Page 23 Start with general and move to the abstract. Induction connects the two worlds by moving from the empirical to the abstract. They both connect and they began in a different place. 3. a) What do theories typically include? Description of phenomena Relationships among phenomena A story Links to Empiricalb) Explain description, relationships, story and links to the empirical world. Page 22 Descriptions of phenomena in the social world Relationships among these phenomena An underlying and abstract storyline that describe the mechanisms at work in these relationships Links between the storyline and the observed phenomena and relationships b) Define: Scope What is the scope of the theory? Can we compare theories of different scopes? Scope is what conditions does the theory apply to?COMM 305 1st Edition One map that describes a tiny area versus a map that describes the whole campus. Appropriateness Are the assumptions made by the theory appropriate? Do they fit what we are trying to do? Theories focus our attention on some things at the expense of others. Heuristic value About the value of the theory. Will the theory generate new ideas for research? Will the theory encourage making of new theory? We want it to be something more than a no duh theory. We want it to make us dig deeper. Theories don’t have to just give us questions but answers. What questions does the theory raise? Parsimony Is it just complicated enough? Make it simple without making it simplistic. Validity Is it true and is it true about the right things? For a theory to be valid it has to fit what we observe. There has to be some correspondents. There has to be correspondents about the things we care about. Openness Is the theory open? Is it accessible enough so that other scholars and people can do something with it. b) Define ontology, epistemology, and axiology. Ontology Onto - from the Greek word means being. It is a study of the nature of being. Reality and how we come to know reality. What is knowable? When you hit your desk are you touching your desk? Can you feel it? It is there. It is real.You aren’t really touching your desk. You feel the resistance between the electrons in your hand and desk. Your senses can be fooled easily. Understanding ontology begins by there is a perception of what we perceive and what is. Most of us operate everyday by what the text refers to as a realist ontology. The world is as wesee it. This is an monoinlist stance. Things only have meaning and are real for us when we give them meaning. We name them. Epistemology Greek - knowing, knowledgeable - questions on the nature of knowing or knowledge. Objectivist and subjectivist stances on epistemology. Your nature of being will have impact on your nature of knowing. Knowledge is codeafiable. In the real world it can be systematically known. We can measure and observe it. We can have faith in those measurements and observations. In the subjective view the real world can’t be separated from our perspectives. We can’t really know someone else's experiences. Filling out a fact questionnaire is useless because we will each see the question differently. Epistemology is important because it has questions like to what extent can I be certain, to whatextent can I transfer what I know. Hot dog story - the nature of knowing. They looked at it from a subjectivist stance and they could find the problem. That is what epistemology is about. Axiology Greek - value or worth. Values and our beliefs about what is right and wrong.COMM 305 1st Edition How do our values enter into our theory making. It can be about what degree do our values inform our decision making. An axiology wants to turn of a dripping faucet. They want what is real about everything. Begin with the scientist. They believe they can be aware of the values. They can separate themselves from the process. The faucet is leaking but they can turn it off. Another view is that the faucet is leaking but they have to deal with it. This is more of a nomolist or ? stance. They can’t separate their ideas. The only hope is to understand the water. If you understand your values you can be aware of how the values are influencing your work.