Theory Building in Experimental Design Research

Abstract

As an introduction, a brief overview of the types and process of experimental research is provided and the concept of research phenomenon is discussed. Then, various kinds of theories, such as: (i) explorative, (ii) descriptive, (iii) explanatory, (iv) predictive, and (v) regulative theories, are considered as milestones of progression of knowing, and some philosophical stances and approaches of scientific theorizing are deliberated. Historically, there has been a move from empiricist and positivist approaches to pragmatist, interpretivist, and instrumentalist approaches of theorizing, which recognized the socially constructed nature of scientific knowledge. These approaches are concisely reviewed and, after that, a systematic procedure of theory building and testing is proposed, which harmonizes with the epistemological and methodological objectives of experimental research. It consists of an exploratory part, which includes knowledge aggregation, assumptions on conducting data generation, and deriving a specific theory, and a confirmative part, which includes justification, validation and consolidation of the proposed theory. As an exemplification, the differences of probabilistic theory building in various manifestations of experimental research are summarized. Finally, some propositions are made.