Theory

Theory is a term that is widely used in both everyday language and academic discourse, but its precise meaning is vague and contested. A theory, in both everyday and scientific use, is normally used to denote a model or set of concepts and propositions that pertains to some actual phenomena; a theory can provide understanding of these phenomena or form the basis for action with respect to them.

Following Thomas Kuhn, qualitative researchers have generally accepted the view that all observation is theory-laden—that our understanding of the world is inherently shaped by our prior ideas and assumptions about the world and that there is no possibility of purely objective or theory-neutral description independent of some particular perspective. Thus, theory is an inescapable component of all research, whether or not it is explicitly acknowledged.

However, the explicit use of theory in qualitative research is quite different from that in the physical sciences and in much quantitative research. Qualit-ative researchers do not usually design their research primarily to apply or test formally constructed theories about the topics and settings they study. Instead, they normally seek to better understand these topics and settings through their investigations and to inductively develop theory about these from their data. Qualitative researchers generally acknowledge, and often explicitly analyze, the influence of their prior assumptions about these topics and settings, and they typically use insights or concepts taken from existing theories and relate their findings to these theories, but their research normally draws on these theories selectively and eclectically, rather than deliberately seeking to contribute to a particular theory.

An apparent exception to this understanding is the widespread use of critical theory, queer theory, and other such approaches in qualitative research. Although these approaches contain some premises about the nature of the phenomena being investigated, they function more as normative frameworks than as theories in the traditional sense, emphasizing particular goals for research and assumptions about appropriate methods for achieving those goals, as well as assumptions about the social context of research and the political and economic structures that shape its conduct and use.

Understanding qualitative researchers' stance toward theory requires further exploration of what a “theory” is. There are three characteristics of the concept of theory in scientific use that are important for this discussion:

• 1.
  Theory is abstract, and refers (at least in part) to entities or ideas that are hypothesized, abstracted, or inferred rather than being directly observable.
• 2.
  Theory is general; it refers not only to a single instance or case, but also to all instances or cases of a particular type.
• 3.
  Theory is typically explanatory; it tells us why things happen, rather than simply describing what happened.

All of these characteristics have created difficulties for the use of theory in qualitative research. Qualitative research has generally focused on concrete description and interpretation, rather than the development of abstract propositions. It has similarly been skeptical of the formulation of general propositions or models and has emphasized the importance of particularity and context. Finally, it has typically rejected the idea of causal explanation, emphasizing the role of interpretive understanding (Max Weber's Verstehen) rather than explanation in the human and social sciences. These three characteristics of theory, and their implications for qualitative research, are addressed below.

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