See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269540814

A Primer in Theory Construction

Article in Contemporary Sociology March 1973

DOI: 10.2307/2063713

CITATIONS READS

197 1,012

2 authors, including:

Paul D. Reynolds
Aston University
150 PUBLICATIONS 8,646 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related
projects:

Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics [PSED] View project

Swiss Panel of Emerging Businesses (SwissPEB) View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Paul D. Reynolds on 07 April 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

170 CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY: A JOURNAL OF REVIEWS
each being a formal information processing serious omission in sociology curriculums to-
model designed to explain, in detail, a specific day is the lack of training in theory construc-
individual's task performance on a particular tion. Reynolds' book is an attempt, and an
problem. The technical contribution is espe- excellent one, to remedy that situation.
cially apparent at this level. Reynolds introduces the problem of theory
In introducing a problem, initial considera- construction by asking: For what should sci-
tion is given to its general nature as a task: entific knowledge be useful? Potential an-
to possible types of representation, to its swers include the creation of typologies, pre-
sources of difficulty, and to alternative meth- diction, explanation, and control of events,
ods of solution. Human performance is then and a sense of understanding as to why events
investigated. occur. He briefly but strongly attacks the no-
A subject, given the problem, is asked to tion that the control of phenomena must be
describe continuously his efforts to solve it. included as a goal of science. He extends this
From this description the vocabulary of sym- analysis to the social sciences: "There is no
bols and operations he uses to code the prob- reason to believe that some social phenomena,
lem and search for a solution is inferred. The such as characteristics of a status structure
course of his problem solving is then repre- (e.g., social mobility) or an economic sys-
sented formally as a sequence of operations tem (e.g., infiation), won't be as hard to con-
which successively transform his knowledge trol as eclipses or earthquakes, even though
state. The theoretical problem is to explain social scientists may be able to provide ty-
the occurrence of each operation in terms of pologies, explanations, predictions, and a
its context. This is done by proposing a "pro- sense of understanding with their theories"
gram," a system of rules each of which speci- (p. 10).
fies a class of conditions under which an After considering desirable characteristics
operation is to be performed. Newell and of scientific knowledge and paradigms, Rey-
Simon are able to explain most of a subject's nolds examines the nature of concepts and
performance in this way. statements. The utility of abstract vs. con-
This ability to describe, in formal terms, crete concepts and the measurement and
an actor's definition of his situation, his quantification of concepts is explored. Dif-
knowledge of facts and operations, the rules ferent kinds of statements are examined.
by which his action is organized and con- Three forms of theories are considered: the
strained, and the content of his communica- set-of-law form, the axiomatic form, and the
tion with othersand the consequent ability causal process form. Reynolds clearly speci-
to explain actual sequences of activityis fies his preference for the causal process form.
surely an important resource upon which so- The relationship between abstract statements
ciologists interested in extending the under- and concrete research is considered. Reynolds
standing of social action may draw. argues that ". . . the results of empirical
research in concrete settings affect the confi-
dence a scientist has in the usefulness of an
A Primer in Theory Construction, by PAUL abstract statement for the purposes of ex-
DAVIDSON REYNOLDS. Indianapolis: Bobbs-
planation and prediction" (p. 117). Through-
Merrill Company, Inc., 1971. 185 pp. out the book, examples from sociological
$2.95. theories clarify the discussion. An appendix
RICHARD A. ZELLER provides four reasonable assignments demand-
State University of New York, Buffalo ing that the student apply the notions in the
book to real theory construction situations.
Most "theory" courses in sociology are
courses in the intellectual history of the ideas In general, I like the book. It handles a
of thinkers who have been close to the field difficult topic; theory construction has thus
of sociology. Though valuable in the sociology far been treated in a woefully inadequate and
curriculum, such courses do not prepare stu- cavalier manner by sociologists. Reynolds
dents for the task of constructing sociological provides us with a shoot-from-the-hip ap-
theories. Such lack of preparation in the past proach and when he hits his target, he hits
and the ensuing inability of sociologists to it swiftly and effectively.
construct adequate scientific theory prompted However, the book suffers from one serious
Reynolds to comment (p. 163): "Two major and glaring liability: Reynolds is both arro-
deficiencies [in sociological theories] are lack gant and naive about the nature of statistics,
of clarity in theoretical writings and igno- methodology, and quantification. He desig-
rance about what scientific knowledge should nates the estimation of population parameters
look like and how it is created." The most from sample statistics as descriptive rather
 CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
than inferential statistics. He argues inaccu-
rately that " . . . as long as two operational
definitions [of a concept] are not negatively
correlated, no problems will arise" (p. 54).
On a number of occasions, opportunities to
show how research can modify and improve
the nature of theory are passed by. Finally,
in arguing that scientific activity should be
directed toward asking useful questions, Rey-
nolds implies that an interest in quantitative
analysis undermines a concern with important
theoretical problems. Such an assertion pro-
vides aid and comfort to the student who
rationalizes statistical and methodological in-
competence because he is "interested in im-
portant problems." The implication through-
out that good methodology is associated with
bad theory is unbecoming. The true and more
useful comment that good methodology could
and should contribute to the construction of
good theory is omitted.
In spite of the serious methodological,
statistical, and quantitative drawbacks that
plague the book, A Primer in Theory Con-
struction makes a substantial contribution
where one is most desperately needed. It
sensitizes sociologists and their students to
the requirements of competent theory con-
struction. We don't construct theories very
well and we ought to.
Fundamental Statistics for Psychology, by
ROBERT B . MCCALL. New York: Harcourt,
Brace and World, 1970. 420 pp. $8.95. In-
structor's manual free.
RICHARD A. ZELLER
State University of New York, Buffalo
In order to accomplish the effective teach-
ing of statistics, an introductory statistics text
must, I believe, accomplish the following:
(I) it must unflinchingly state the definitions
and principles of statistical analysis; (2) it
must be written so that the novice will be
able to cope with, if not enjoy, statistical
analysis. Among the large number of mathe-
matically accurate textbooks available for the
teaching of an introductory course in statis-
tics, very few accomplish both of these goals.
Robert McCall's Fundamental Statistics for
Psychology accomplishes both.
McCall's definitions are crisp and correct.
For example: "The distribution of a statistic
is called a sampling distribution" (p. 148);
"The standard deviation of a sampling distri-
bution of a statistic is called the standard error
of that statistic" (p. 150); "The number of
degrees of freedom (df) for any statistic is the
171
number of components that are free to vary"
(p. 167); and "The theoretical sampling dis-
tribution of the ratio of two independent vari-
ances is called F" (p. 191). Similarly, Mc-
Call's statement of principles of statistical
analysis are clear and understandable.
The organization of Fundamental Statistics
for Psychology is also well-suited for an in-
troductory statistics course. Correlation and
regression are properly treated as descriptive
rather than inferential statistics. The example
used in introducing the sampling distribution
is the normal curve, rather than some other
distribution such as the binomial, allowing
a reasonable presentation of the relationship
between the standard deviation and the stan-
dard error of the mean. Derivations and com-
putational formulas are clearly separated from
the discussion of their use. Formulas are
summarized at the end of each chapter. Ex-
ercises effectively illustrate the concepts with-
out requiring extensive arithmetic computa-
tion and the answers to exercises are provided.
Statistical concepts which are statistically cor-
rect but serve primarily to confuse the novice
(such as correction for continuity in Chi
square analysis, and the computation of
means from grouped data) are gracefully
omitted.
My recommendation of McCall is for in-
troductory but not for advanced statistics
courses. Sociologists should ignore the "Psy-
chology" in the title, as correlation, regres-
sion, and contingency principles are ade-
quately handled for introductory statistics
courses in sociology departments. In particu-
lar, residualization, explaining variance, and
factors Influencing correlation coefficients and
regression lines are understandably handled.
Multiple and partial correlation and regres-
sion, however, are not handled. My positive
reaction to McCall stems from his ability to
combine frank presentation of statistical con-
cepts with a concern that the mathematically
unsophisticated, terrified introductory statis-
tics student be able to cope with the material.
Change and Development
Urbanization and National Development,
edited by LEO JAKOBSON and VED PRAKASH.
Volume I. South and Southeast Asia Urban
Affairs Annuals. Beverly Hills, California:
Sage Publications, 1971. 320 pp.
HILDA H . GOLDEN
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
In this volume (and the volumes to be pub-
lished later), the participating scholars hope
View publication stats