Theoritical and Conceptual
‘Theoretical’ is largely to do with the exploration of the consequences of adopting some specific
concepts or axioms – such as rational maximization or conservation of momentum. The resulting
theorizing then becomes a sort of mathematical or logical discourse. Given this and this, then what
follows logically?
Notions like the individual, equilibrium, or balance, are pervasive axioms – just as are self-regulation,
boundary maintenance, etc. Or we might have an axiom such as a business with slack resources is
always looking to apply them. We might call all such propositions ‘concepts’ or axioms.
The important thing about an axiom is that it is adopted without any demonstrable justification. They
are the theorist’s ‘strategic choices’. The most acceptable justifications are (a) these choices are
already manifest in the literature, so the theorist is following in an academically established tradition, or
(b) the theorist is striking out in new directions by ‘inventing’ a new concept, such as the equivalence
of mass and energy or, in Maxwell’s case, light and electricity. In (b) it is probably the case that the
theorist is using tropes such as ‘analogy’ or ‘metaphor’ to apply a mode of thought familiar in some
other field to her/his own field, as an innovation. Thus biological systems theory is applied in
organization theory, even though the actual entity to which it is then applied has never been identified.
Either (a) or (b) can lead to novel propositions or ‘hypotheses’. Thus Parsons’s work.
The typical philosophy of science position is that these should be tested by experiment. There are
plenty of questions about what, if anything, can be discovered by doing this but most of them are
ignored in our field.
But there is an implicit division of labor between those whose work is primarily intellectual – who might
call themselves theorists – and those who work on the experimentation – who may call themselves
empiricists. The classic example is the collaboration of Michelson and Morley on the speed of light, in
which Michelson, who won the Nobel, was the theorist and Morley the experimenter. The example may
be more apocryphal than useful since I am not at all clear about who did what in this collaboration,
which was clearly fruitful. But one certainly imagine this kind of division of labor. The nature of
academe and its power systems is that theorizing is regarded as a higher form of activity. This is not
simply snobbery, it is about the reach of the the work done. The experiment is of limited influence,
while the theoretical implications may be extensive.
But there are other notions of ‘empirical’ or ‘empiricist’. The whole idea of testing ideas against one’s
experience of the world is ‘empiricist’, and goes back to Francis Bacon’s and John Locke’s thinking
about how to persuade people by example rather than by appeals to higher authority, such as the
Delphic Oracle or the Bible. This gets us into discussing alternatives notions of Truth, and their
‘warrants’. To be an empiricist in this sense is to be modern and the very opposite of stigmatized. This
most extreme form of this approach is ‘logical empiricism’.
The social sciences are different, perhaps, because there are two kinds of phenomena. First there are
those which can be observed in the manner of the natural sciences, billiard balls banging into each
other, rocks being crushed, metal strips being torn apart, chemicals combining into new compounds,
etc. Thus we can observe people undergoing training and learning how to behave in new situations,
such as being managerial. We can imagine experiments testing alternative forms of training.
But there is a second class of phenomena which is about the meaning that people attach to their
experience. This arises only because we allow a different axiom, to do with the difference between
people and rocks. People, we assume, think for themselves, and act on the basis of those thoughts.
This is the method of ‘Verstehen’, or ‘subjectivity’ and in due course gets us into existentialism. All of
which grows out of us observing others doing their own theorizing about the world. The emphasis is on
understanding that mental activity rather than on our theorizing about their physical actions, and it
means a significant shift of vantage point.
Once we have adopted this distinction between people as thinking for themselves and rocks which
only act under the impulse of ’causes’, we have a lot of problems with knowing what we can ever say,
in the sense of hypotheses, about other people. We are in danger of saying the only truth is whatever
the individual takes to be the truth.
One way out of this is to presume there is a form of inter-subjective truth wherein free-thinking
individuals come to an agreement. This is not the same as concluding that what these individuals think
has been ’caused’ by someone or something else. That would be to deny what I have called the
second class of phenomena and push the discussion back into the cause and effect discourse of the
natural sciences.
Technically, or axiomatically, the difference is to do with human agency, which we can call the human
ability to intercede between cause and effect on the basis of her/his own theorizing. It is also to do with
changing the epistemological relationship between the researcher and the person researched, of
recognizing there can be no prioritizing the researcher who, we assume, is no more or less of a person
than the ‘subject’, the person being theorized about.
Again, one way of dealing with researching those who have agency is to look for common patterns –
do those who consider themselves French eat differently than those who consider themselves
Norwegian?
This leads to another form of ‘being an empiricist’, which is to say one must start from such patterns of
human behavior rather than from concepts. This is the distinction that lies behind the Methodenstreit –
about which it is always good to think.
Studies about Moral Issues
Maybe you’ve been together for a number of years and moving in together seems
like the next logical step. Maybe it’s a matter of saving money. After all, why pay
rent at two places if you’re always together? Maybe you think living together will
help you decide if you’re really meant for each other.
Whatever the reason, if you are an unmarried couple and thinking about sharing a
home, you’re certainly not alone. More than 2/3 of married couples in the U.S. now
say they lived together before getting married. According to the U.S. Census Bureau,
there were about 11 million unmarried couples living together in 2000, representing
over 8 percent of American households. Most of these couples are under age 30; an
increasing number are seniors who wish to share love and a household without
entangling finances. But before you sign a lease together, there are some things you
should know.
While many parents have tried to raise their children under a moral code that
connects sharing a home with exchanging vows, their 20-something kids have grown
up in a culture that normalizes living together as a life stage. Those of us who came
of age during the 1960s and 1970s remember well the stigma and moral injunctions
that were visited on couples who decided to live together back then. Some couples
went to great lengths to keep their living arrangement secret. Some flaunted
convention. But whether the arrangement was seen as a precursor to marriage or a
philosophical objection to state involvement in love, such couples were outside the
mainstream and risked the disapproval and ire of relatives and community.
In less than 40 years, living together has become more acceptable and more
prevalent, setting up a generational divide that sometimes causes major tension,
even rifts, between young adults and their parents.
If potential family discord weren’t enough, unmarried couples tend to break up more
than married couples do. The probability of a first marriage ending in divorce within
5 years is 20 percent, while the probability of a couple living together breaking up
after 5 years is 49 percent. Those are sobering numbers, indeed.
Cohabiting couples aren’t necessarily doomed to failure. Like most things, it’s not the
obstacles or the numbers that matter but the reasons behind them and whether they
are relevant to your situation. By becoming aware of the issues and carefully working
them through together before you call the moving vans or rent the truck, you are
less likely to be surprised by an outcome you neither predicted nor wanted.
For one thing, men and women tend to view living together differently. Women, as a
rule, see moving in together as a serious step toward a long-term commitment. Men,
on the other hand, tend to see it as a way to decide if they are going to make such a
commitment. Unless a couple talks seriously about it, they may be surprised and
dismayed to find that they made different assumptions about the nature of their
relationship when they said yes to the live-in arrangement. She tends to end up
more hurt. He tends to end up feeling unjustly accused of promising more than he
was willing to deliver. It’s important to make sure you understand and agree with
each other’s ideas about the meaning of a shared apartment before you move in.
Living together is seen by some as a “trial” marriage. If the trial isn’t successful, the
couple feels free to break up and move on. Unfortunately, becoming a couple on the
basis that it is a trial builds in the notion that it might not work. When people feel
“on trial,” they don’t commit in the same way as when they have vowed to make it
work “for better or worse.” If a couple wants the trial to result in marriage, they
need to talk honestly about how much effort they are willing to put into resolving
differences instead of using them as reasons to break apart. Setting a time limit on
the “trial” helps a couple stay focused on resolving the issues that, if left unresolved,
could become deal-breakers.
The high divorce rates of the 1970s and 1980s have resulted in many young people
being phobic about marriage. Having lived through the confusion, pain, and
instability of their parents’ breakup, they never want to go through anything similar
again. They especially don’t want to put a child through what they experienced.
When love sneaks up on them, living together may seem like a way to make a long-
term relationship without making themselves so vulnerable to loss.
Like the trial marriages, these relationships already have a crack in their foundation.
By keeping some part of their hearts safe from hurt, these couples “protect”
themselves from being fully committed and are therefore more likely to break up
under the inevitable stresses of life. If one or both of you comes from a divorced
family, it’s important to talk about how it shaped your opinions and attitudes about
making a more permanent commitment.
Some unmarried couples end up staying together for a long time for the wrong
reasons. They know the relationship isn’t quite right but it just takes too much effort
to separate belongings and to find new places to live. Or a separate place seems
financially impossible. Or each person is convinced that he or she won’t find anything
better. Or one or the other is afraid of being alone. Or the families and friends see
them as a couple. Such couples slide into each additional year without being really
committed to each other. Finally something happens that shakes them out of their
inertia and they part company, having deprived themselves of years when they
might have found true love. Having a pact to reevaluate at least once a year can
prevent such a slide into expediency. Staying clear and regularly talking about what
you each want over the long term can help you avoid “settling” for less.
Finally, it is difficult to survive as a couple if the extended families and other people
who matter are against the cohabitation arrangement. Every couple runs into tough
spots now and then. When family and community like your partner and approve of
your lifestyle, they usually step in to help a couple through the hard times with
advice, support, and encouragement. That support won’t be there if they think living
together is immoral or was a mistake from the start. When couples include the
parents who love them in their thinking and plans, there is often more room than
anyone thought to reach some kind of understanding.
GUIDE FOR WRITING A FUNDING PROPOSAL
Example:
Background Information/Statement of the Problem
Major obstacles to child survival in the developing world include infections,
parasitic diseases, malnutrition and the risks associated with low birth weight
and high fertility. (UN Informational Letter #37-435) A serious problem exists
in the rural villages of Malnesia of children dying from common illness and
infections that are attributable to poor nutrition. Though high nutrition foods
are available in the villages, it is apparent that mothers do not have an
understanding of exactly what foods contain the most value for their children.
(Ministry of Health, 1994) The most significant person in the life of the young
child is the child's mother. Research has shown that the children of mothers
who have an understanding of how to provide good nutrition to their children
stand a significantly greater chance of survival during the first three years of
life (87% survival rate) as compared with children of mothers who do not know
how to provide good nutrition (43% survival rate) (Position Paper, Opening
Plenary Session, Malnesian Health Conference - MALHEALTHCON - 96).
The use of volunteers to provide community service is a new concept in
Malnesia and can be capitalized upon as a viable way to provide trained
manpower for the offering of educational services. The first student service
scheme, Service Mahasiswa/SERMAH, was created in the early 1990s. Initially
operated at only two universities, SERMAH is now a mandated national
program that operates at all public and private universities (Directorate for
Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Statistics for 1996). The emphasis of
SERMAH has been exclusively on the providing of information to local
farmers on improved farming practices. The Universitas Pembangunan
Pertanian has been funded by the Ministry of Agriculture to operate the
SERMAH Educational Development Center (Introducing SERMAH, Ministry
of Agriculture, 1996) as a central agency for the providing of farming practices
instructional materials to all universities in Malnesia. The selection and training
of student volunteers is conducted autonomously at each university with the
support of the instructional materials disseminated by the SERMAH
Educational Development Center.
Assumption and Presumption
Some people have certain presumptions -- for example, that government is better suited
to handling problems than individuals or private entities. And then there are the
accompanying assumptions that government, for those who have faith in its supposedly
superior capabilities, will always produce the desired outcome.
Nowhere has the failure of presumptions to produce results from assumptions been
more evident than in public education. In an essay for the American Enterprise Institute
for Public Policy Research (AEI), excerpted from their book "Schoolhouses,
Courthouses, and Statehouses: Solving the Funding-Achievement Puzzle in America's
Public Schools," Eric A. Hanushek and Alfred A. Lindseth write that many, including the
courts, have blindly accepted the assumption that more money will improve student
performance. "Almost no one has seriously examined the empirical evidence to
determine its validity." They have.
The authors look at four states -- Wyoming, Kentucky, New Jersey and Massachusetts --
where courts ordered the legislatures to appropriate more money for public schools on
the presumption that increased spending would improve performance. Their conclusion:
court-ordered funding does not necessarily improve test scores and African-Americans,
despite the increased spending, are even worse off.
The authors write that, "Even when judging the effectiveness of their own previously
ordered remedies, courts rarely examine the remedy's effect on student achievement."
They cite the Wyoming Supreme Court's dramatic 1995 ruling that the state's education
funding system was unconstitutional, ordering the legislature to spend whatever it took to
make education in the state the "best." "Despite these unprecedented increases in
school funding," write Hanushek and Lindseth, "the achievement of Wyoming's students
has largely failed to keep up with the nation or even with its much lower-funded,
although demographically similar, neighboring states." The court has paid little attention
to the outcome of its spending order, apparently because it just assumed it would work.
Related Literature and Studies
Related literature and studies help the researcher understand his topic better because it
may clarify vague points about his problem. It also guides the researcher in making
comparisons between his findings with the findings of other similar studies. So it is
necessary that the related materials should have true value. I listed some
characteristics of related literature and studies for your guidelines.
• The related materials should be as recent as possible. It is important that
reviewed materials must be new or fresh because of the rapid change in technology,
social, economic, scientific and human lifestyle.
• Reviewed materials should be objective and unbiased. Avoid reviewed materials
that is extremely political or religious or onesided.
• Surveyed materials should be related to the study. Relevant or similar materials
to the research must be reviewed.
• The reviewed materials should be based upon genuinely original and true facts
or data must be valid and reliable. Avoid materials where fictitious data are supplied
just to complete the research report because it is hard to prove.
• Reviewed materials should not be too few and too many. The researcher should
provide sufficient enough reviewed materials to give insight into the research problem
or to indicate the nature of the present studies. However, the number may also
depend upon the availability of related materials.
Sex Education
Sex Education
Many parents are against sex education being taught within the schools. Sex is a very sensitive subject.
Many parents feel that it is not appropriate to teach children these ¡§facts of life¡¨ at such a young age.
Shouldn¡¦t one wait for marriage to learn about these things any way? The overwhelming fact is that a
growing number of teens especially are thinking about and even having sexual encounters. Should sex
education be taught in school? Some say that is no longer the question, but rather how should it be
taught. Over 93% of all public high schools currently offer courses on sexuality or HIV. More than 510
junior or senior high schools have school-linked health clinics, and more than 300 schools make
condoms available on campus. (Sex Education in the Schools) The following is a discussion of the
many questions associated with teaching sex education at school.
Within the last few years, mentoring has emerged as a popular topic in several fields. Articles and
talk shows imply that success in life is somehow related to having a mentor or being a mentor.
The purpose of this review is to evaluate the extent to which such enthusiasm can be
substantiated by research. The literature on mentoring is divided into three sections: the
mentoring phenomenon in adult growth and development, mentoring in the business world, and
mentoring in academic settings. A concluding section summarizes findings across these three
settings, speculates about the relevance of mentoring for adult educators, and suggests avenues
for future inquiry.
Summary of the Study
Conclusions:
Drawing conclusions is the main goal of writing your report. For readers, the conclusion section
often becomes the focal point of your report. This is the part of your report readers read to
understand the meaning of the whole report. For some readers, it may be the most important
section. Nearly all reports need a conclusion of some type.
Your conclusions need to be based on the evidence you present in the body of your report. When
writing conclusions, consider these points:
1. Keep them relatively short (usually a couple paragraphs).
2. Keep the level of technicality relatively low.
3. Emphasize what the report means.
Focus on the main results and what they mean.
Pull the analyses of your results together.
Interpret the overall meaning of your results for the reader.
Explain the inferences you want readers to draw from your report.
4. Add no new details.
5. Do not merely summarize the report.
Recommendations:
If your report leads to recommendations, you should include this section. Sometimes,
recommendations appear in the conclusion section; other times the recommendations form a
separate section. You need to consider what you want to emphasize.
In a recommendation section you should answer these questions:
1. What do you want the reader to do?
2. What action(s) should be taken?
To make your recommendations work, you should:
1. Base your recommendations on your conclusions.
2. Keep them simple.
3. Use a list for emphasis if you have two or more recommendations.
4. Consider tone. Remember that reports do not make decisions; people do.
Use “should,” “recommend,” or similar terms.
Teenager Says
Sex In Mass Media
Samantha Allen
Chandler Crawford
Ese Evbuomwan-Owa
Lindsey Markle
Sex in Mass Media and its Sociological Effects on Teenagers
The average teenager watches television for about 23 hours a week. While watching
television, he or she is exposed to many sexual innuendos in the shows that he or she
watches. As parents and facilitators are trying to fight against sexual activity at a young
age, everything they say is being contradicted by the programming the American youth
is watching on a daily basis. How is the message of abstinence ever going to out way
the message that sex is an acceptable activity for the younger generations? This is not
something new to television for adolescents, but it is something that is getting
progressively worse and more acceptable to the general public. Alarmingly, the reality
shows that are on television today are infused with unsuitable sexual connotations.
Even the commercials use sex as a way to sell their products,
even for the simplest of items such as a soft drink. The most unsettling thing about the
commercials is that they use sex to advertise for miscellaneous items, but people do not
take advantage of them to try to educate the youth about abstinence or to explain
contraception measures and protective measures.
Today's youth is spending more time in front of the television in one week than they
spend in school. Out of all of the homes in America 98% (Nielsen Media Research,
1998) of them have a television set available for family use. L Goodstein and M.
Connelly say that 66% of the children in these households have a television in their
bedrooms. Amongst these children most of them watch about a half an hour more
television a day than the children without. This is allowing them to watch more
television and be exposed to materials children should not encounter. The American
academy of pediatrics recommends no more than two hours per day of media exposure.
They suggest the best way to lessen their...