Theories and Concepts in Social Work Hawra Alakhdhair Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis My view of theory and concepts As humans develop, social scientists utilize theories and concepts to define and explain behaviors. Each tenet of theories and concepts defines these frameworks difference. I will begin to define theories and concepts using the scientific and social field lenses. Scientific and social theory The definition of theory and concept in the scientific field is different than in society. According to John Wacker “Authors usually agree that the goal of ‘good’ theory is a clear explanation of how and why specific relationships lead to specific events” (Wacker, 1998, p. 364). Scientists use theories to explain scientific experiments (Bradford, 2015). That is, theory is an explanation of a relationship or an experiment process. Daniel little states a theory as “One or more hypotheses about causal mechanisms and processes” (little, 2010). We usually say that we have a theory if we got an idea. Scientific and social concepts James Watt and Sjef Berg state, “The basic building blocks of theories are concepts” (Watt and Berg, 2002, p. 11). Concept is a category that we gather in things that are related (Botsch, 2008) Watt and Berg need concepts to define the theory, but Bostsch in the social field is defining concepts as a groups of common facts or ideas. We can see the differences in views here, where each one is defining based in his
A theory is defined as “a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena (Merriam-Webster, 2017). In the nursing field, nursing theories have helped shape philosophies of many nurses in our history, as well as modern day. Every nurse, near and far, could probably tell you who Florence Nightingale was. She was a pioneer for women in nursing and made countless contributions to our field. Her nursing philosophy was based on Environmental Theory, “A belief that a person’s surroundings such as clean air, water,
As described above, chapter five takes a look at the notion of theory, the book breaks down this chapter explain what is theory, making a theory, theory and contemporary social work and lastly expanding the theoretical possibilities. The textbook views on what a theory is that it can analysis of facts that can explain phenomena, it can describe anything values, oppression and grief. The making of a theory consists of developing different perspectives, critiquing existing approaches, question social exclusion and challenging social realities. Theory and contemporary social work is to evaluate theories, like social systems and ecosystem perspective and compare it to social
There are five sociological concepts I am going to explain. And I will be using scenes from the Disney movie Pocahontas as examples. The five are: norms, role conflict, values, ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.
2) A theory is defined as an organized set of concepts that explains a phenomenon or set of phenomena. - True
Everyone in the world has a theory about why something happens or how it happens, but in sociology there are many different types of theories that often contradict each other. Theory is defined as “a statement of how and why specific facts are related” (Macionis, 2013). Most theories explain why people act in certain ways and explains why a person in a group may act different than someone that is alone. When building sociological theories most sociologist ask their selves two different questions: “What issues should we study?” and “How should we connect the facts?” (Macionis, 2013). By answering these questions the sociologist is led to a road map, or a theoretical approach. Theoretical approach is described as “a basic image of society that
theories. It focuses on two seperate issues: the meaning people give to traits, actions and
Theories are a series of interconnected proposals. Theories are an effort to describe, explain, predict, and finally control a period of events. We are able to base our experiments and select the contenders for the experiments off of our theories. We are able to test our theories by how well the cumulated data describes, relates to and predicts reality. Theories act as patterns for interpreting specific data that we may refer back to. These patterns ensure we stay on topic and are able to obtain the proper results needed to verify our theories.
Theory explains how individual act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those things. The meaning comes
A theory is a set of systematic informed hunches about the way things work. A good theory goes beyond accepted wisdom and offers explanations and speculations about phenomena. Additionally, a good theory consists of a system of concepts which means that the theorist were able to make connections among his ideas. A theory tends to shape our perception of reality and behaviour and guides us through unknown areas.
Theory simply tells the essential truth about the real world through evidence obtained by scientific method. Barker defines theory as a group of related hypotheses, concepts, and constructs, based on facts and observations all in which attempt to explain a phenomenon. Every theory is unique, but can reflect some of the same general ideas. Though every theory has a different focus, they can all be intertwined in order to enhance therapeutic alliance. In order to choose the best theoretical orientation for ourselves and how they will benefit our practice, we first have to understand the meaning of theoretical orientation.
Theories, specifically scientific theories are comprised of three components, which include concepts, definitions of concepts, and propositions (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). Concepts are words or phrases that represent phenomena such as criminal behavior, hormone imbalances, below-normal intelligence, inadequate socialization,
2. Theory simply means we come up with a problem, and we look for a solution. A theory is a series that tries to
According to Haralambos and Holborn (2008), a theory is a set of ideas which attempts to explain how something works.
A theory is primarily meant to explain or predict an event, behaviour or outcome. Proponents of a theory look for evidence to support the theory. This evidence should be independently observed and consistent after repeated observations. Some theories are speculative or ideas or guesses floated to encourage researchers to undertake the observations required to prove or disprove the theory. The question often debated is what comes
Theories in sociology provide us with different perspectives with which to view our social world. A perspective is simply a way of looking at the world. A theory is a set of interrelated propositions or principles designed to answer a question or explain a particular phenomenon; it provides us with a perspective. Sociological theories help us to explain and predict the social world in which we live.