In the comments of one of my quantitative research videos I was asked: “how do you
support your study relationship based on a theoretical or conceptual framework?”
That is a great question!
There has been a large push from academic institutions and journals in recent years
for the explicit use of these frameworks in research studies.
Theoretical or conceptual frameworks are used to support research in many ways.
More than one framework may even be useful in your research.
How they guide the development of a research study depends on your question and research
design.
Sometimes you need to know your theory before you begin your study and other times it makes
more sense to select it after data collection.
I always tell my students that the research question should drive all of the decisions
in a study.
Keep in mind, however, that sometimes your question actually comes from the theoretical
framework.
If your research is about testing, confirming, refuting, expanding on, refining or adding
to an existing theory then you need to be sure you know what it is before the study
begins and I would explain that theory in the literature review section of your paper.
When you get to the results section of that paper it would likely make sense to organise
your results in the same way the theory is organised.
In the discussion section you can then examine how your results and other literature either
support or refute the theory.
Sometimes you will not set out to discuss a particular theory.
A theoretical or conceptual framework will still be useful to support your question or
organise your findings.
When using a theory to support your question the theory needs to relate to the reason why
you are doing the study.
In Killam and Heerschap (2012) we used a theory about force field analysis to justify examining
student perceptions of challenges to their learning in the clinical setting.
Basically, the theory talks about how change occurs when positive forces outweigh negative
ones.
Therefore, if educators want students to be safe we need to remove barriers to students
practicing safely.
In order to remove these barriers we need to know what they are.
And there you have how the theory supported the reason for asking the question.
Quite honestly we added this theory in after the study was completed because the journal
required that we have one.
Our selected methodology, however, supported conducting the study without a theoretical
frame up-front.
We developed our own model to explain the findings.
The theory did work well with discussion section that had already been written for the paper.
I have done a few qualitative studies where I wanted to examine a topic broadly and have
subsequently found a theory that helped me organise and explain the findings.
For example, in Killam and Carter (2010) the Ecological model was used to organise the
findings of a literature review about challenges that student nurses face while on clinical
placement in rural settings.
We did not select the Ecological Model as a lens until after the review was completed
and we were in the process of analysing the data.
You can look at this article for free by clicking on the link below this video.
Notice that the Ecological Model is introduced in the literature review, used in the findings
section to organise the collected data and again in the discussion.
Originally we had used all the headings from the model in the discussion section but due
to space limitations we had to condense it.
When writing it up we did link the selection of the framework to the question.
You will find that if you select the right framework the question and findings will fit
nicely with it and the entire paper will flow nicely, making a high quality product.
If your research is designed to generate a new theory it would make sense that you don’t
know what it is before you begin.
If so, you will want to explain the concepts you are examining in the literature review.
In your findings you would then build the case for your theory based on your study data.
Then in the discussion you would talk about how pre-existing literature also supports
your theory.
Another use for theory is to explain the culture of the group being studied or the worldview
of the researcher.
In qualitative studies it is useful to know these things when assessing the quality and
transferability of the study.
Sometimes studies will present a conceptual framework, which may include discussion of
multiple views of a particular concept like in Killam et al. (2012).
The entire paper still flows because it is about one topic but there is no clear pre-existing
theory supporting the entire paper.
What other ways have you seen theoretical or conceptual frameworks used to support study
relationships?
Do you think journals should require a theoretical framework in publications?
Why or why not?
Please share your views below.
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