Theme 3: Research and theory

I choose the article “Computers in Human Behavior” (Robert Tennyson, 2012) Impact factor: 2.067 (2012) 
And the aim in the article is to examen the use of computers from a psychological point of view. Both by individuals, groups and the rest of society. The primary message in the journal is information about human behavior. Topics that are common in the article are:  Professional practice, training, research and theory development, human development, learning, cognition, personality, and social interactions.

I choose the paper: "Social Netwokring Sites: Their Users and Social Implications - A Longitudinal Study (Petter, B. Brandtzæg, 2012) JCMC Five Year Impact Factor: 4.748

This paper is about people that uses social networking sites (SNSs) and what this usage can lead to from a social implication point of view. There are four social capital dimensions to look at: face-to-face interactions, number of acquaintances, bridging capital and absence of loneliness. Where the results are that users of SNSs got a higher score on the first three social capital dimensions, whereas non-user got a higher score on the last one. So even though users have a more face-to-face interactions and a larger number of acquaintances they are still more lonely than a non-user of SNSs.
In the conclusion they answer my thoughts about how accurate this paper is with the following comment: “However, the conclusions in the present study should be interpreted with caution; the effect sizes were rather small and it was not possible to inferring causation from a statistical association between SNS-usage and social implications.” It also seems that they use one source much more than others, namly Turkle (2011), and you should always broad your perspective.

1. Briefly explain to a first year student what theory is, and what theory is not.

In the paper “What Theory is Not” they claim that theory is not the actual data or references, variables, hypotheses or diagrams. But to explain a theory you should look at these different types and use them. So, theory is something you can explain by using the previously mentioned methods. So you have facts and evidence to support your theory.

2. Describe the major theory or theories that are used in your selected paper. Which theory type (see Table 2 in Gregor) can the theory or theories be characterized as?

They have researched and looked mostly at statistics to come to a conclusion. So in my paper the theory type from Table 2 (Gregor, 2006) can be characterized as analysis.

3. Which are the benefits and limitations of using the selected theory or theories?

The benefits with analysis is that it’s not so restricted, we can read from Gregor (2006) that analysis is; “The theory does not extend beyond analysis and description. No causal relationships among phenomena are specified and no predictions are made.” So it’s kind of loose and easy to write a paper/report around. The limitations then however is that you almost never get something concrete.