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comprehensive but vague and unordered speculations, to axiomatic
systems of thought—use of the word often obscures rather than
creates understanding.
Lack of consensus on exactly what theory is may explain why it is so difficult to
develop strong theory in the behavioural sciences (Sutton and Staw, 1995), so I will
start from a primer on laws, hypotheses, and theories.
LAWS, HYPOTHESES, AND THEORIES
In both academic and practitioner usage, law, hypothesis, and theory are too frequently
used interchangeably. By the principles of the Scientific Method, a theory refers to
something has been sufficiently proven through past research, and is generally accepted
as being true. A law is a statement of fact accepted to be true in every case by a large
majority of those familiar with the phenomenon the law describes. Laws are similar to
mathematical postulates (postulates are axioms, generally accepted principles
sanctioned by experience). Therefore, laws do not need further proof. They are based
upon the fact that they have always been observed to be true. Most laws are simple
rather than complex. There are widely known laws in physics, the law of gravitational
attraction, Newton’s laws of motion, the laws of thermodynamics, Boyle’s law of gases,
and the law of conservation of mass and energy.
An hypothesis is a proposition derived from observation and received knowledge. It is a
statement proposing an explanation of a single event or phenomenon based upon what
had been observed in the past, but which has not been sufficiently researched to be
accepted as proved. Studies are designed and employed to support or refute an
hypothesis by experimentation or continued observation. Principles of the Scientific
Method state that an hypothesis can be disproven, but not proven true; the source of the
ubiquitous null hypothesis, Ho, there is no significant difference ... etc.
A theory is an explanation of a set of related observations or events based upon
hypotheses that have not been completely and sufficiently verified multiple times by
unaffiliated groups of researchers. Frequently a theory is ultimately accepted to be true
by a scientific community after a consistent string of studies with no falsifying results,
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