THEORY AND RESEARCHtheory and research fit together. Theory also helps
to sharpen our thinking about what we are doing in
a study. If we are clear and explicit about our study’s
theory, others will find it easier to read and under-
stand our research. One indicator of a weak research
study is that its theory remains unclear, incomplete,
or poorly formulated.
SOCIAL THEORY VERSUS
IDEOLOGY
Many people confuse social scientific theory with
either a sociopolitical ideology or a moral-religious
doctrine. This is understandable. In daily life, we
encounter many doctrines and ideologies that share
features with social theory. The debate over evolu-
tion and “creationism” in the United States illustrates
the misunderstanding of scientific theory by many
laypeople. Opinion polls show that more than half of
the U.S. public want schools to teach both evolution
and creationism because people say both are “theo-
ries” (Pew Forum, 2005). However, evolution qual-
ifies as a scientific theory because of its logical
coherence, openness, integration with other scien-
tific knowledge, and empirical tests. Creationism (or
its reinvention into something called “intelligent
design”) does not qualify; instead, it is part of an ide-
ology grounded in a moral-religious doctrine.
Moral-religious doctrines are faith-based belief
systems. They rely on sacred teachings or writings
that believers accept as being absolute truth and
largely do not question. These doctrines are a type
of ideology, or a nonscientific belief system. Debates
over many public issues involve ideology, either a
moral-religious one, a social-political one, or both.
The doctrines frequently appear in the mass media
from advocates of various political-moral viewpoints,
in corporate or interest group media campaigns, or
in justifications by politicians for public policies or
new laws.
Their many shared features make mistaking
an ideology for a social scientific theory easy. Both
tell us why things are the way they are: why crime
occurs, why some people are poor but not others,
why divorce rates are high in some places, and so
on. Both contain assumptions about the fundamen-
tal nature of human beings and of the social world.
Both tell us what is or is not important. Both offer
systems of ideas or concepts, and both interconnect
the ideas.
The scientific community recognizes theory as
essential to the scientific enterprise. Good theory is
essential to clarify thinking, to extend and deepen
our understanding, and to build knowledge over time.
The scientific community views ideology differ-
ently, as a nonscientific worldview. Ideology may
be appropriate to address nonscientific questions
but is an illegitimate way to evaluate truth claims or
build knowledge on many issues or questions of
social science. To many in the scientific community,
ideology is a source of obfuscation that is antithet-
ical to the fundamental principles of science. Defend-
ers of ideologies at times become antagonistic toward
social science when the social science refutes aspects
of their ideological belief system.
As an “almost” theory,ideologylacks critical
features required of a true scientific theory. We can
distinguish ideologies from theories in seven ways
(also see Summary Review Box 1):1.Certainty of answers.Many people find
comfort in ideologies because they offer absolute
truth and certain answers. They provide people with
feelings of assurance and sense of security. In con-
trast, social scientific theories offer only tentative
answers and admit to uncertainty. Many people are
uneasy with the persistent uncertainty, hesitation,
and tentativeness of scientific theories. Social sci-
ence theories require us to have a high tolerance for
ambiguity, to ask questions continuously, and to live
with persistent doubt.
2.Type of knowledge system differs.Ideolo-
gies offer a closed system of knowledge that changes
little. Ideologies claim to have all of the answers and
do not require improvement. In contrast, science is
an open-ended knowledge system that is always
growing and changing. Its answers are incompleteIdeology A nonscientific quasi-theory, often based
on political values or faith with assumptions, concepts,
relationships among concepts, and explanations. It is a
closed system that resists change, cannot be directly
falsified with empirical data, and makes normative
claims.