Forum Discussion Four: Theory To begin helping you put pieces of your chapter to

Forum Discussion Four: Theory
To begin helping you put pieces of your chapter together — this week each person is to upload 2-3 pages (double spaced) explaining their theoretical framework into the ‘Theory Upload” Assignment tab. For some of you this part could end up being longer, the point of the exercise is to have you start the section which will make you think about it more. The forum is here if you have questions or want to work through options for your theory. I will check it, but you are not required to post. Your grade for the week will be based on the quality of the paper you upload. It need to be formatted in APA and have all citations in it. Start writing as if it is a new section of your paper.
Read the context below to help you understand why theory is important and how it is used.
Everyone will have a theory section in Chapter 2.
Theory is used differently depending on your method. In both cases it provides a lens from which to understand what you are studying, the position you’re taking regarding the topic (i.e., feminist, etc.), and why you make certain decisions to study this and not that. If you are not sure of what theory you are using at all — choosing one may help you to focus and narrow your study. Knowing your theory well and how it influences your study will help you in defending your proposal. Your theory can be quite broad as in cybernetics or general systems theory or it can be very specific such as Fishbien and Ajzen’s Theory of Reasoned Action.
How you use theory will be different depending on if you use quantitative or qualitative methods.
In quantitative research theory is what guides the relationships we propose exist between our independent and dependent variables. For someone interested in burnout and marital sanctification, what theory guides your belief in that? How does the theory propose change happens?
In qualitative research the use of theory is more open and you can approach it differently depending on your topic. Most of the time it guides the ‘why’ am I studying a particular phenomenon. For example, someone qualitatively exploring burnout and marital satisfaction may have a theory of how burnout specifically influences martial satisfaction – rather than a model that focuses on deficits.