Using Causal Questions for Theory Development

Learning Objectives

At the end of today’s session, we should each be better able to:

1. Identify the major theories in your discipline, and apprecaite the value in conversations informed by theory.
2. Articulate how your research question is informative of the major theories in your discipline.
3. Recognize that all theories have causal implications.
4. Apply the idea of the ideal experiment as a dark mirror for theory understanding.