Research Methods Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Research Methods - Assignment Example Theory building is relatively more complex that theory testing. In theory testing, a researcher primarily tests whether a certain theory explains a phenomenon that he or she is investigating (Christensen, Johnson & Turner, 2011). For instance, a researcher studying the cause of global warming may consider testing the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) theory. The rationale behind testing such a theory is to uncover whether the AGW theory best explains global warming. Therefore, the researcher may test the theory by looking at the humidity levels resulting from the emission of carbon dioxide. Theory testing aims at collecting evidence to either confirm or contest a theory. In theory building, the researcher synthesis literature content related to his or her interested topic of study in an attempt to explain a given phenomenon. For instance, a researcher studying the concept of global warming may consider the analysis of all theories related to global warming including the AGW theory ( Polkinghorne, 2005). The usage of data in testing already constructed hypotheses and theories is advantageous since the analysis that shall be done is meant to confirm or dispute the given theories and hypotheses. On the downside, this statistical method is prone to the aligning of new information to old findings and may thus eliminate other findings not taken care of by the theory or hypothesis in question (Leedy & Ormrod, 2010). On the other hand, the usage of data in generating hypotheses and building theories has its advantages among them the completeness and depth of analysis and drawing of conclusions (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004). This is due to the fact that there are no biases the researcher is exposed to (Polkinghorne, 2005). The disadvantage is that the conclusions are exposed to many untested results. The first rationale for employing the