THEORY DEVELOPMENT

PROCESS
 Overview of Theory Components and their
Contributions to the Theory
THEORY COMPONENTS CONTRIBUTIONS
Concepts Description and classification
Theoretical Statements Analysis
Definitions
Theoretical Meaning
Operational Measurements
Linkages
Theoretical Plausability
Operational Testability
Ordering of concepts and Elimination of overlap
definitions into primitive and (tautology)
derived terms
Ordering of statements and linkages into Elimination of
premises and equations inconsistency
CONCEPTS

 the building blocks of theories

 classify the phenomena of interest

Classifications:

1. Abstract Concept

– independent of a particular time or place

2. Concrete Concept

– relate to a particular time or place

Abstract Concepts Concrete Concepts

Social system Notre Dame University

Debate Aquino-Villar Debate

3. Discrete Concept

– identifies categories or classes of phenomena, such as patient,

nurse, or environment.

- also called as nonvariable concept

Typologies

- consist of a systematic arrangement of concepts

 Discrete Concepts

Nonvariable concepts

Typologies

Typology of Marital Status

Married Single/Never Married Divorced Widowed

Male Male Male Male

Female Female Female Female
4. Continuous concept

– permits the classification of dimensions or gradations of a

phenomenon on a continuum, such as degree of marital conflict.

Degree of Marital Conflict

0 120

Low High
THEORETICAL STATEMENTS

· connect concepts which are needed to devise a

theory

General Categories:

1. Existence statements

– assert that a given concept exists and is labeled with the

concept name.

2. Definitions

– provide descriptions of the concept

3. Relational statements

- assert relationships between the properties of two or more

concepts or variables.

- may be expressed as either a necessary or sufficient

condition or both.
Relational statements

3a.) Sufficient condition

eg.) if nurses react with approval of patients’ independent

behaviors (NAPIB) patients increase their efforts in self-care
activities (PSC)

NAPIB PSC
(Antecedent/determinant) (Consequent/resultant)

This statement asserts that nurse approval of a patient’s

independent behaviors is sufficient for the occurrence of the
patient’s self-care activities.
3b) Necessary condition

eg.) Without the motivation to get well (MGW), patients will not
adhere strictly to their prescribed treatment regimen (PTR).

MGW PTR

3c) Sufficient and necessary conditions

In such instances, the term if and only if is used to imply

that the conditions are both necessary and sufficient for one
another. In this case:

i) the consequent never occurs in the absence of the antecedent

ii) the consequent always occurs when the antecedent occurs.

eg) If there is fire, then there is smoke.

Although causal statements (one variable causes
another ) may be expressed as a conditional
statement, not all conditional statements are
causal.

eg) If this month is March then the next month is April.

The statement does not assert that March causes

April to occur. Rather, the sequence of months
suggests that April follows March.