Question: By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

Competency 2: Evaluate the characteristics, purposes, benefits, strengths, and weaknesses of research methods.

Explain how theory guides research in a selected field of study.

Competency 5: Examine the appropriate application of scientific research methodology.

Describe the theory or theories that provide the framework of the research.

Analyze how researchers used a theory or theories to provide the framework for the research.

Evaluate the contribution the research made to the theory or theories.

Competency 6: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of the identified field of study.

Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of the identified field of study.

Write a 6-8-page analysis in which you discuss the theoretical framework of the research presented in one of the articles you wrote about in Assessment 2.

Theories provide structure and guidance for research. In return, research helps advance and build theories. You might say that theories and research have a reciprocal relationship in which each benefits the other. With perhaps a few exceptions, all research needs to be grounded in theory to have scientific merit. Obvious exceptions to this are those exploratory studies whose purpose is to generate new theories, though there is some debate about this (Greenwald, Pratkanis, Leippe, & Baumgardner, 1986). Theories provide a way to organize knowledge and make predictions about phenomena.