Theories

Chapter 10 in Ben Goldacre’s book Bad Science is called “Why Clever People Believe Stupid Things” and the title alone hints what the upcoming theories will be about. When I read the title of the chapter, the first thing I thought about was superstitions and luck. As I read on, I discovered that the theory does actually touch upon the topic of luck. The Randomness theory discusses how humans have a habit of making something out of nothing (Goldacre, 2008). Goldacre provides a few example of this,…

Theories of perception attempt to find an answer to how we see, interpret, and ultimately perceive the world around us-- or not around us. These theories try to make sense of why we perceive what we perceive, how we perceive what we perceive, and what we are actually perceiving whether it be that we are directly perceiving everything in the world or that there is nothing in the world at all. Both of these ideas are popular theories of perception accepted and critiqued by many philosophers. Two…

What is a theory? - A theory is a foundational belief of how the world works. As theories allow individuals to gain knowledge and have understandings, therefore the term ‘theory’ is powerful. Within this essay, there would be a discussion on a scenario of a child living in Aotearoa New Zealand using Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model as a guideline. By using Bronfenbrenner’s theory, this will help form an image of the child’s life and how it has an impact on the individual's learning and…

Critical theory is, in my opinion, best defined by Marx(1843), as the ‘self-clarification of struggles and wishes of the age’, a general applicable definition that does not take into consideration a specific historical time, place or political problem. In order to talk about critical theory and its genuinely critical features I believe it is essential to make a clear distinction between critical theories and scientific theories. According to Frankfurt School there are 3 main categories of…

Theory X and Theory Y by Douglas McGregor, summarizes a difference between management styles in that Theory X is an authoritarian style which assumes employees are naturally unmotivated, and Theory Y is a participative style and assumes that employees are self-motivated and enjoy working with greater responsibility (Mindtools, n.d.). In my workplace, I am more partial to Theory Y. I think that unless personally observed, managers should not just assume that otherwise mature, responsible adults…

People become addicts because of the need for something that they do not have. And they do not have it because of their childhoods. His theory would even explain why people do not have addiction problems until perhaps fifty years after the trauma. It would most likely be because of a trigger that would cause them to lose the…

Besides Bourdieu, the theorist I like the most is Max Weber. He approached the subject cautiously, built the bridge between the canonic theories and the latter ones, and is extremely relevant to many phenomena that happen nowadays. Before we delve into the specific arguments of him, first of all, he was very cautious of making any absolute claims, and I respect such cautiousness especially in the study of the society and of the social because causality is so hard to define. For example, unlike…

In this essay, both of McGregor’s concepts of ‘Theory Y’ and ‘Theory X’ (McGregor, 1960) will be explored. However, it must be mentioned from the outset that one can argue to a greater extent that Theory X provides a more universal approach towards management within the leisure industry. Despite this, some elements of Theory X are undoubtedly outdated. The autocratic style of Theory X leadership no longer governs industries as effectively as it once did – due to many factors including an…

to develop a criminological theory in order to explain why all individuals commit crime. In order to go further in depth about determining whether or not we have a solid theory to explain all crime, I will be reviewing author Jonathan R. Brauer’s article about Social Learning Theory and how it applies to theft and marijuana use. Along with that, I will make a criminological review of his research article and come up with an answer on whether or not his use of the theory is able to explain all…

Labeling Theory By Richard Bennet Abstract: Labeling theory is a sociological theory about the cause and effect of labeling individuals based on their behavior. The theory dates back to 1930's it was developed as a means to explain anti-social behavior. It was later redefined in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The theory was first introduced by George Herbert Mead, a sociologist. He theorized if a person is labeled due to behavior that is outside the social norm, he…