What makes a good objective theory?

Objective Theories

• Explanatory Power – explanation of data
  • How well it make sense out of chaos. How it provides an order to chaos.
  • Which are the most important variables to attend to and which are irrelevant. Which things to look at, which things to avoid.
  • E.g. Weathermen/women use tools like a barometer to calculate shit.
  • How well does a theory explain power?
• Predictive Power – prediction of future events
  • How well your theory can explain what would happen next!
  • Prediction of future events
  • The use of probability, likelihood of an action occurring twice.
• Parsimony – relative simplicity
  • The relative simplicity of a theory. A good objective theory is as simple as possible—no more complex than it has to be.
  • Occam’s Razor (Getting rid of superfluous information)
  • (Opposite of a) Rube Goldberg Machine (COMM1F90…the study of how simple things are turned complex….PSYC1F90)
• Testability (must be falsifiable) – hypotheses that can be tested
  • It has to be possible to be proven wrong
  • It’s not that you prove the theory false, but it’s a test that has to be possible.
  • If a prediction goes wrong, there has to be a way to demonstrate the error.
  • If there is no way to prove it false, then the claim that it is true seems hollow.
    • E.g. “I can do a lay-up and it would never miss.” – It may go in the first 3 times, but may miss the 4th time.
  • Social exchange theory uses an economic model to explain stuff
  • Anytime a theory is a circular logic, it must be falsifiable
• Utility – practical utility
  • A good theory allows you to do something useful, control something
  • You can make use of something
  • Theories of persuasion, planning an ad campaign (Practical situations)
  • If you don’t understand it, it’s relatively useless.
    • Eg. Cybernetic tradition
• Internal Consistency
  • A good theory hangs well together
  • One theorem that contradicts another, it does not have internal consistency
  • How well the parts of a theory come well together
• Heuristic
  • Good theories lead to heuristic (Rules, suggestions, guides, or techniques that may be useful in making progress toward a solution of a problem) questions.
  • Leads to more questions for investigations
  • Does the theory lead you to ask new questions?

What makes an interpretive theory good?

Interpretive and Critical Theories

• new understanding of people
  • subjective understanding, instead of wanting an objective one
  • What does it feel like for the person viewing the film (must be shitty if it is Miami Vice)
  • Participant viewpoint.
  • identification of values
  • science wants explanation; humanism wants subjective understanding
• clarification of values
  • What values are important to people?
  • Acknowledges the values of the theorist.
  • A good theory would analyzes values
    • Does the media influence you? Most say no.
• aesthetic appeal
  • the form of a communication theory can capture the imagination of a reader just as much as the content does
• community agreement
  • we can identify a good interpretive theory by the amount of support it generates within a community of like-minded scholars
• reform society
  • a good interpretive theory often generates change; have an impact on society.