how to do theoretical research inshaaAllah?

so, are u planning to do a theoretical research? the how part of doing so, may not be as clear as the empirical one. took me some time just to figure out how it goes. basically, the entire process is given below. 

the explanation from each part is taken directly from my thesis. :)

Theoretical research (Looren de Jong, 2010 ; Remenyi & Money, 2004 ; Kukla, 2001 ; Freese, 1980) is an alternative way of conducting research that entails the following steps (Figure 3.0) :

1. Gestation
(what is my insight?)

The purpose of gestation is to provide direction to the theoretical research with a specific research question. Gestation can be inspired by numerous reasons, such as a current conflict in research, or a novel insight on how a particular method can be improved. The initial notion presented in this stage is more often than not, only a 'sketch' of what the researcher has in mind.

example?
let's say u studied P Theory and it says that wealth is good.
however, when u look around you, most rich people have the tendency to be destructive.
so, u start to wonder.. is theory P true? doesnt seem true where u're standing.

P Theory : good(wealth)

but ..
have(people, wealth) => bad(people)?

2. Review
(what kind of relevant researches have been done?)

Review is basically the process of collecting a series of literature that is relevant to the research. This may include frameworks, theories, models etc. This stage is important to gauge the validity and viability of the theoretical research.

example?
so, u start to read literature on wealth. most literature supports P-theory.
however, there are some that mention the bad effect of wealth.

P Theory : good(wealth)
? Theory : bad(wealth)
here, the ? implies that a theory has yet to be clearly formed to compete with P Theory.

3. Reflection 
(what do the relevant researches imply?)

Knowing the relevant researches is not sufficient in theoretical research. The implication of each research must be dissected via reflection to ensure the fluidity of latter reasoning. As such, inferred knowledge plays a crucial role in assisting the the theoretical research towards success.

example?
so, after thinking about bout stuff through reflection, it occurs to us that wealth can be both good and bad to a person. we can write this as below :

P Theory : good(wealth)
? Theory : bad(wealth) OR good(wealth)

4. Interpretation
(what do the relevant researches mean in context?)

Once the ramification of the literature is understood, the next step is to interpret its impact in the context of the theoretical research. Here, it is  imperative to employ the right form of deduction to ascertain the meaning of the literature in various context, which may differ to its original one.

example?
if we know that wealth can also be bad instead of good as stated by P Theory, what's the reason? the research implies that there must be a deciding factor that dictates whether wealth would be good or bad. this factor is not covered in P Theory. this is how we should interpret the situation. let's call it factor(F)

P Theory : good(wealth)
? Theory : bad(wealth) OR good(wealth) <= factor(F)

5. Integration 
(how can the theories, models etc work together?)

The challenge of interpreting a phenomenon from differing school of thoughts gathered in the review stage, is the effort of unifying the multidimensional perspectives that come with it. Integration may cross the dimension of research such that it might involve not just theories per se, but theory and models or models and frameworks.

example?
here, we integrate all that we have discovered to see how they can relate with one another. what do we know so far, from P Theory, ? Theory and our own observation  ... ?

P Theory : good(wealth)
? Theory : bad(wealth) OR good(wealth) <= factor(F)

Observation : have(people, wealth) => bad(people)

let us improve the equation for the observation. it should now be like the one below. why? because we now know that

Observation : have(people, wealth) => factor(people,F) => bad(people) OR good(people)

6. Production 
(what is the new theoretical idea?)

After the intricate study, it is possible to produce a theoretical idea that explains the phenomenon of interest based on the insights gathered from the integration and interaction of varying ideas of related research. This is where the contribution of theoretical research resides. The theoretical idea can be expressed in normal language or prepositions of logic.

example?
ahh now we can start producing a new theory for the research. we know that wealth gives a person certain perks from others, which can be exploited to gain dominance etc. perhaps, we can suggests that how people decide to use their wealth on others will determine whether they would be good and bad.

? Theory : bad(wealth) OR good(wealth) <= factor(F)
Observation : have(people, wealth) => factor(people,F) => bad(people) OR good(people)

F = use(people, wealth, others)

? Theory : bad(wealth) OR good(wealth) <= factor(F)

PQ Theory : bad(wealth) OR good(wealth) <= factor(people(use(people,wealth,others))

and now, we've improved P Theory! let's compare them side by side. can u see the difference?

P Theory : good(wealth)

PQ Theory : bad(wealth) OR good(wealth) <= factor(people(use(people,wealth,others))

7. Refinement
(how to refine the theoretical idea?)

The initial stage of theorizing is usually coarse. It may lack internal consistency whereby the elements of the theoretical idea are not completely in unison with one another. Refinement is the process of improving the theoretical idea into a stable conception that is both sound and congruent.

example?
let's say some people argue that using wealth for others can make the person who owns the wealth becomes poor. what happens then? would PQ Theory still hold?

PQ Theory : bad(wealth) OR good(wealth) <= factor(people(use(people,wealth,others))
wealth(person) = have(person, wealth) - donate(person, wealth) = poor(person)

so maybe we have to refine it. we'll say that the PQ theory would only hold if the person donates money but not to the extent that he doesnt have enough to lead a normal life, like buying food and having a reasonable house to live in.

donate(person, wealth) where donation <= normal_life(person)

8. Discussion 
(what is the impact of the theoretical idea?)

Finally, in the discussion stage, the impact of the new theoretical idea is explored. There is a number of ways to perform this. The theoretical idea can be employed to a certain phenomenon to study its capacity to provide a reasonable explanation and prediction. Alternatively, it can be compared to other theoretical ideas to assess its usefulness in contributing knowledge.

example?
in the discussion, we can discuss many things. for instance, what would happen if everyone who's rich is eager to donate to poor people. would poor people take advantage? would the economy suffer inflation?

thats for u to do :)

The cycle is repeated until the theory looks stable.

okay if u wanna get a better idea of how i utilized the process flow in my actual research, below is a copy of my thesis. the research revolves around psychology but inshaaAllah it can be adapted to other fields such as IT, engineering etc. how do i know? well, let's just say i've done a couple of test drives for myself and others.

SAMPLE THESIS? a theoretical analysis on the limitation of frayer model in mathematics

focus on chapter 3 : methodology to get a better idea on the methodology inshaaAllah. it's good to prepare yourself with theories of logic and what not to understand the argumentation better. hope it helps!

how do you summarize your literature review?

i know most of you have your own ways of summarizing the literature review. some of em are quite comprehensive. :) cant compete with that.

what do u hope to achieve with your literature review?

if you're writing a review paper to be published, the comprehensive approach is very tempting. however, if you're using it for the purpose of doing research ie helping you in solving your research problem, or helping you direct your research better then you may not need to list out everything you've read.

so, when should i use this?

inshaaAllah, this technique is okay if you wanna organize the literature review in your MIND. remember, the mind can't really suspend too much facts at one time. so, this approach is more of a lightweight process.

the approach exploits the concept of 'layering' in literature review. looking at all the journals, articles etc that u've collected can be a bit overwhelming right? so, we're gonna layer them pretty much like a cake.

image from freedigitalphotos.net

how can i do it?

so, how do you do it? remember the acronym I-BRING.

what does it mean? Idea - Basic Related Important New Goal

now, let's take a look at how we can use each of em step by step.

Idea

what's the central idea for your literature review?

first of all, you gotta decide on the main idea that u wanna focus on. this is the central idea of your literature review. supposed u have one and it's all about "driving". so, we're gonna visualize that now. ahh look at that. assume that (faridah, 2010) is the paper that you wanna attach to the idea. so you have the idea in the centre and the ring circling it. wassup with the ring?

Basic 

what's the basic ideas that are related to this main idea?

yeah, once the central idea is clear, try figuring out what are the basic ideas that explain the central idea. when you're doing try your best to stay FOCUS. forget about the new technology and what not. just ask yourself. "what is the basic idea that explains the central idea?" there can be a few, but for the sake of illustration, let's just say that three things are basic to driving. they are... the car you're driving, the cost of driving and finally the traffic. so, you can now update the diagram this way inshaaAllah. ahh that's the first layer of the literature review.

Related

what is related to the basic idea?

now that you have the basic idea etched properly in your mind, along with the key reference, it's time to go to the next step. let's expand it a bit by looking at the ideas that are related to the basic one. Again, try to stay focus when you do this. don't clutter it too much. at most, just take three ideas that are related to the first layer. this would be the second layer. Why are we using the lines to mark the layers? to remind us that we should stay focus in doing the literature review. i know, it's really tempting to talk about 1001 things under the sun when it comes to citing something but again, stay focus!

Important

what are the important ideas for me?

ok, in this step we won'd be adding any more layers yet to the cake, urm.. i mean the literature review. instead, we're gonna accentuate the ideas that are important to our own research. accentuate in the sense that we're gonna make it stand out from the rest. so, to do this, it's important to contemplate, what is it that you're doing for your research? let's say you're doing research on how to exploit the time of driving to save the cost of petrol. can you see how that would affect the pic below?

see that now, all the related ideas are in bold. they are time - traffic - driving - cost - petrol.

New

what are the new things that others are suggesting?

now comes the final layer! the third layer. in this layer you put all the new ideas that are emerging in research. for instance, to save cost of petrol in driving, we could do two things. first, we could work only 4 days a week. going to the office only four days a week instead of 5 or 6 times would save petrol. another alternative is to go to work at non-peak hours, when everyone else is not on the road. this way, there would be less traffic and so inshaaAllah.. less petrol would be consumed. Oh, and notice the question mark inside the idea (?) . it means that the idea is new and is still being explored.

Goal

does the diagram fit your research goal?

the last step is to check the summary you just made for yourself. does it fit your research goal? if it doesn't then you may need a revision. always remember that in summarizing the literature review you need to know two things :

• what's my goal for research? (the literature review must fit the goal of research)
• how do i plan to use the summary? (comprehensive one is for writing, this one is for helping you think about research.

anyway, hope it helps. try it out now. you don't need to draw it nicely like the example. it's best to sketch it with a pen and paper. oh, and when you draw it on paper, you don't have to draw the orbits too. just remind yourself that you need to do it in layers ... Basic, Related, Important and New.

if you have any questions, just ask. i'll try to answer if i can inshaaAllah. and if you wanna know the rationale behind the usage of this approach, feel free to do your own research on schema theory, cognitive load theory and radial diagram.