- Briefly explain to a first year university student what theory is, and what theory is not.
Oxford Dictionaries’ definition of theory is “A supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something [...]”. Theory is used to explain something (it may be whatever) and to give knowledge about the subject in question.
Gregor distinguishes five different types of theory:
The first one is called Theory for analyzing (“what is” ). This is the most basic type of theory and only aims to describe. It is used when little is known about the subject examined. The second is Theory for explaining (“how and why”) and this is a theory for understanding the subject examined. Theory for predicting (“what will be not why) is the third one. With this theory it is possible to predict outcomes without explaining possible correlations between factors, that is not explaining or examining why it is going to be like that. Gregor’s fourth type of theory is called Theory for explaining and predicting or also EP - theory (“what is, how, why, when and what will be”) and is used for description, understanding, explaining correlations between factors as well as predictions. The last one is called Theory for design and action (“how to do something”) and deals with knowledge used in developing.
Sutton and Saw claims that references, data, variables, diagrams and hypotheses are not theory.
The first one is called Theory for analyzing (“what is” ). This is the most basic type of theory and only aims to describe. It is used when little is known about the subject examined. The second is Theory for explaining (“how and why”) and this is a theory for understanding the subject examined. Theory for predicting (“what will be not why) is the third one. With this theory it is possible to predict outcomes without explaining possible correlations between factors, that is not explaining or examining why it is going to be like that. Gregor’s fourth type of theory is called Theory for explaining and predicting or also EP - theory (“what is, how, why, when and what will be”) and is used for description, understanding, explaining correlations between factors as well as predictions. The last one is called Theory for design and action (“how to do something”) and deals with knowledge used in developing.
Sutton and Saw claims that references, data, variables, diagrams and hypotheses are not theory.
Select a research journal that you believe is relevant for media technology research. The journal should be of high quality, with an “impact factor” of 1.0 or above. Write a short description of the journal and what kind of research it publishes.
I chose the journal Computers in Human Behavior which has an impact factor of 2,489. The journal examines computers usage and in a psychological point of view. It is not focused on the actual computer and the technology behind it but the interaction between humans and computers. The computer is just a tool where humans show their behavior.
Write a short summary of the paper and provide a critical examination of, for example, its aims, theoretical framing, research method, findings, analysis or implications.
The article I chose is called “Personality and Motivations Associated with Facebook use” and is written at the department of Psychology at the University of Windsor. This article examines the use of Facebook and what kind of personality traits that is connected with Facebook usage and also motivations for using Facebook . Facebook is a bit different from other social media since a lot of Facebook Friends meet in the “real” world first and then becomes friends of Facebook. This shows and unusual offline-to-online trend.
I chose this article since Facebook has had such a great impact on our society today. I would say that it really has changed humans way of living in our society today (in the westernized world). I’m also interested in the common personality factor and motivations driving Facebook usage since I, myself, am currently using Facebook regularly.
I chose this article since Facebook has had such a great impact on our society today. I would say that it really has changed humans way of living in our society today (in the westernized world). I’m also interested in the common personality factor and motivations driving Facebook usage since I, myself, am currently using Facebook regularly.
This study had 97 participants, 82 women and 15 men, who had to give information to identify their personalities. The participants also had to answer how they used the different functions of Facebook; the wall, posting photos, private messages, poking, groups, events, posting status, commenting and so on.
85% had Facebook. Some of their results were that; subjects which were extroverts belonged in more groups, those who had a lot of neuroticism liked the wall best, while does who didn’t show a lot of neuroticism liked photos. They came to the conclusion that motivation was not connected to a specific personality trait. The researchers were pretty surprised that they didn’t find more findings about personality correlations, since results from previous studies indicated that more correlation would exist.
- 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 would say that the main theory the article uses can be characterized as Gregors first type of theory: Theory of Analyzing. The researchers mostly try to find what is, for example what personality traits, what kind of motivational factors etc. But in their discussion they try to explain why the result looks like it does. Therefor they also have a bit of the second theory: Theory of Explaining . However they don’t really explain how it came to be that way.
- Which are the benefits and limitations of using the selected theory or theories?
The Theory of Analyzing is the most basic type of theory and it only focuses at describing a subject which is beneficial since it is easy to understand that kind of result. But, it is limited since it doesn’t really give any deeper knowledge to why, how or what the findings actually mean and how it will affect people. Since this article researches personal experiences it is also difficult to generalize.
As for the Theory of Explaining it is beneficial since it aims to understand the findings but it doesn’t give any predictions of what may come.
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