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Dubin developed a widely used methodology for theory building, which describes the components of the theory building process. Unfortunately, he does not define a research process for implementing his theory building model. This article proposes a seven-step general research process for implementing Dubin's theory building model. An example of a theory building process is used to explicate a research process that will aid new theorists and reviewers of theory in conceptualizing a rigorous and systematic process to implement Dubin's model.
Keywords: theory building
The need for theories lies in human behavior or the need to impose order on unordered experiences (Dubin, 1978). A theory is a system for explaining a set of phenomena that specifies the key concepts that are operative in the phenomena and the laws that relate the concepts to each other (Torraco, 1994, 1997, 2005). Dubin (1976) defines theory as an attempt by man to model some aspect of the empirical world. The underlying motive for this modeling is (a) that the real world is so complex it needs to be conceptually simplified in order to understand it, or (b) that observation by itself does not reveal ordered relationships among empirically detected entities. A theory, therefore, tries to make sense out of the observable world by ordering the relationships among elements that constitute the theorist's focus of attention in the real world (Dubin, 1976).
Dubin (1976, 1978), a distinguished scholar of theory and its origins, developed a widely used methodology for theory building, which describes the components of the theory. Dubin begins the theory building model with units whose interactions constitute the subject matter of attention to be addressed by the theory. The units of the theory and the laws by which the units interact constitute the major contribution to knowledge generated by a theory. Dubin's methodology for theory building consist of eight elements: (1) units whose interactions constitute the subject matter of attention, (2) the laws of interaction among the units, (3) the boundaries within which the theory is expected to hold, (4) the system states in each of which the units interact differently with each other, (5) the propositions of the theory, (6) empirical indicators, (7) the hypotheses derived from the theory, and (8) empirical research to test...