Levels and elements of theory; theory and research

1. Levels of theorization

Theories differ in how far they rise above the data. Three levels are usually named.

• Working hypotheses and empirical generalisations: minor statements about particular findings (“urban voters turn out less than rural voters in this State”).
• Middle range theories: theories of limited scope covering a bounded range of phenomena.
• Grand theories: all-embracing systems that try to explain the whole of society.

Grand theory

A grand theory attempts a single conceptual scheme for all social behaviour, organisation and change. Comte’s law of three stages, Spencer’s evolutionism, Marx’s historical materialism and above all Talcott Parsons’s general theory of action (The Social System, 1951) are examples. The term was given its critical edge by C. Wright Mills in The Sociological Imagination (1959), who attacked Parsons’s “grand theory” for piling up abstract concepts that never touch concrete history, just as he attacked “abstracted empiricism” for piling up data without ideas.

Merits: unifies the discipline; supplies concepts and a common language; shows how institutions connect. Limits: too abstract to test; tends to be static; ideas run ahead of evidence.

Middle range theory

Merton defined theories of the middle range as theories that lie between the minor but necessary working hypotheses that evolve in day-to-day research and the all-inclusive systematic efforts to develop a unified theory explaining all observed uniformities. His own examples: the theory of reference groups and relative deprivation, role-set theory, the theory of social structure and anomie, and the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Features of middle range theory:

1. Limited sets of assumptions from which specific hypotheses are derived and tested.
2. Close enough to data to be confirmed or refuted.
3. Can be consolidated, over time, into wider networks of theory.
4. Cuts across the micro-macro divide (reference groups work for individuals and for nations).
5. Neutral between grand systems: a theory of role-sets fits Parsons or Marx.

Critics (Parsons among them) replied that middle range theories without a general framework become a heap of unconnected findings. Merton’s answer was that general theory would grow out of consolidated middle range theories, as it had in the natural sciences.

2. Elements of theory

Following Jonathan H. Turner (The Structure of Sociological Theory), every theory is built from four elements.

1. Concepts. Terms that denote phenomena (“group”, “power”). They must be clearly defined and shared.
2. Variables. Concepts that can take different values: degree of urbanisation, income, level of education. Theories are most useful when concepts are stated as variables, so that a change in one can be related to a change in another.
3. Statements. Propositions that connect concepts or variables: “the greater the inequality in the distribution of scarce resources, the greater the conflict between dominant and subordinate groups”. Theoretical statements say how and why variables are linked.
4. Formats. The way statements are arranged. Turner names four:
   • Meta-theoretical schemes: debates about the basic issues a theory must address (what society is, how to study it).
   • Analytical schemes: classification of concepts into a framework, either naturalistic (Parsons’s AGIL) or sensitizing (interactionism).
   • Propositional schemes: axiomatic or formal sets of propositions from which others are deduced.
   • Modelling schemes: diagrams of causal connections between variables.

3. Relationship between theory and research

Theory without research is speculation; research without theory is a collection of facts. The two are in constant traffic. Merton described the traffic in both directions in two essays reprinted in Social Theory and Social Structure.

(a) The bearing of sociological theory on empirical research

1. Methodology: theory tells the researcher the logic of inquiry.
2. General sociological orientations: broad postulates (Durkheim’s “explain social facts by social facts”) that point to the kind of variables to look at.
3. Analysis of sociological concepts: clarifies concepts so that they can be measured.
4. Post factum sociological interpretations: explanations fitted after the data are collected. Merton warned these are plausible but untested.
5. Empirical generalisations: isolated propositions summarising observed uniformities.
6. Sociological theory proper: when such generalisations are derived from a set of interrelated propositions, as Durkheim derived suicide rates from integration.

(b) The bearing of empirical research on sociological theory

Merton insisted research is not a passive tester of theory. It actively shapes it in four ways.

1. Initiates theory: the serendipity pattern. An unanticipated, anomalous and strategic finding forces a new theory. Merton’s example is the Craftown housing study, where parents of young children took a far larger part in civic activity than expected; the explanation lay in the dense local network, which made trusted child-minders easy to find, and so in the structure of social relations rather than in individual attitudes.
2. Recasts theory. New data that the existing theory neglected force it to be restated more broadly.
3. Deflects theory (refocusing of theoretical interest). New research methods and data turn attention to new problems.
4. Clarifies concepts. The need to measure a concept forces it to be defined precisely.

How this is examined

“Explain the relationship between theory and research” (August 2024; October 2023) and “What do you mean by theory and research? Explain the relationship between these two” (April 2022) are the standard essays: define both, set out Merton’s two directions, and close with the wheel of science. “Middle range theory” (August 2024) and “Grand theories” (April 2022) come as six-mark notes; use the definitions, Mills for grand theory, Merton’s examples for middle range, and the four-line table.