Most grad students use theory to guide or frame their research, (less on "to make theoretical contributions"). To understand what is a scientific theory, theoretical contributions, and configurations between data, methods, and theory in the filed of I-O psychology will grad students to identify a scientific theory that fits and guides specific research, not "tangentially related research."
1. The disciplinary nature:
- There are relationships between data, method, and theories Read more
- There are many well-supported truly scientific theories in the basic research literature. Our field [I-O psychology] is sitting next to a scientific theory goldmine in other psychology journals, yet we neglect it in favor of creating our own untested theories. (p. 344)
2. What is theory?
- a theory is a well-replicated and strongly supported hypothesis (p.332)
- elegance and parsimony are considered hallmarks of true scientific theories (p. 340)
3. What is theoretical contributions?
- In I-O psychology and management journals, a theoretical contribution is viewed as “new and innovative ideas and insights” and “meaningfully exten[sion of] exist-ing theory”