Theoretical framework in research: how to write one

A theory is an explanation that other researchers have already tested. It says why something happens and which factors matter. A theoretical framework is how you put such a theory to work in your own study. The research guide of the University of Southern California (USC) libraries calls it "the structure that can hold or support a theory of a research study."

theoretical frameworknoun

The established theory, or theories, that a study is built on, with its key concepts defined and an explanation of how it shapes the research questions, the method and the reading of the results.

Think of it as a lens. A unit on writing the framework, on the Open University's OpenLearn Create site, gives an example: a question about why staff resist a new computer system reads one way through the Technology Acceptance Model and another way through the theory of planned behaviour. The framework tells your reader, before any data appears, which lens you chose and why.

In a 2014 paper in the Administrative Issues Journal, Cynthia Grant and Azadeh Osanloo compared the theoretical framework to the blueprint of a house. The blueprint is not drawn after the walls are up; it decides where the walls go. In the same way, the theory should shape your questions, method and analysis, not be added at the end.

The USC guide lists what a good framework does for a study:

• It makes your assumptions visible, so readers can judge them.
• It links your study to what is already known.
• It limits the scope to the few things that matter.
• It gives you a way to read your results, even unexpected ones.

Shruti could see the problem. Her questionnaire had been written before her framework, so it asked about internet speed and video length, and almost nothing her six theories would predict. Her framework had been decoration.

Students often use these two terms as if they meant the same thing. The OpenLearn unit notes that Grant and Osanloo found them "frequently and incorrectly used as synonyms." The difference is simple once you see it side by side.

Most studies need both, and the theory usually comes first. For a guide to drawing the second, see conceptual framework in research.

Every field has a handful of theories that turn up again and again. Treat these as starting points for reading, not as recommendations for your topic.

Know where your theory came from. The Health Belief Model, for example, was developed in the 1950s at the US Public Health Service, when few people came forward for tuberculosis screening even when mobile X-ray vans visited. What a theory was built to explain tells you where it fits and what it may miss.

Shruti had read about six theories and could not bear to leave any out, because choosing felt like throwing away work. Dr. Sengar gave her three tasks instead.

1. Start from your research problem.The USC guide treats it as the anchor of the whole study. Shruti's question, why people keep going with a course nobody forces them to finish, is about motivation, not technology.
2. Read three or four recent papers on your exact topic.The OpenLearn unit suggests noting which framework each one uses; departing from your field's usual choice needs a reason. Shruti found that several recent studies of why learners finish or abandon online courses used self-determination theory.
3. Weigh each theory against its rivals.The USC guide suggests judging a theory by its "appropriateness, ease of application, and explanatory power." Ask of each one: does it explain my problem, can I measure its concepts, and does it tell me something the others do not?

Shruti put her two strongest candidates side by side. The Technology Acceptance Model explains why people start using a system. But her classmates had found SWAYAM easy enough to join; what they lost was the will to continue. Self-determination theory, set out by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan in their 1985 book Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior, is about exactly that. It holds that people stay motivated from within when three basic needs are met: autonomy, competence and relatedness. She chose it, and kept two short paragraphs on why she had not chosen the other.

Once the theory is chosen, the section has a fairly standard shape. This order brings together the USC and OpenLearn advice.

1. Name the theory and where it comes from.Who proposed it, when, and what it was built to explain. Cite the original work.
2. Define its key concepts.Pick the three or four terms that carry the weight of your study and define each from the literature. Where authors define a term differently, say which definition you adopt and why.
3. Explain how the concepts relate.What does the theory predict? Which factor is expected to lead to which outcome?
4. Justify your choice.Say why this theory fits your problem better than the obvious alternatives. The OpenLearn unit suggests that two or three paragraphs of comparison are usually enough.
5. Show how it shapes your study.Link each concept to a research question, a hypothesis or a part of your research tool, and say how the theory will guide your analysis.
6. State its limits.Every theory leaves something out. The USC guide asks you to say which parts of your problem the theory cannot explain.

Two small rules from the USC guide help. Use the present tense for the theory, since you are applying it now. And do not treat it as settled truth: "Don't just take what the theory says as a given!"

If your study tests predictions, this is the section each hypothesis should grow out of. Every prediction should trace back to something the theory says.

Here is how Shruti's rewritten framework connected the theory to her study. This table sits in her chapter, and each row became a section of her questionnaire.

And here is the opening of the section itself:

This study draws on self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 1985), which proposes that people stay motivated from within when three basic psychological needs are met: autonomy, competence and relatedness. Leaving a course that nobody requires one to finish is, at heart, a question of sustained motivation. The Technology Acceptance Model was considered, but it explains why people begin to use a system rather than why they continue. Each need is measured in a separate section of the questionnaire. The theory does not account for practical barriers such as the cost of mobile data, which are recorded as control variables.

Those few sentences name the theory and its source, give a reason for the choice, set aside a rival openly, link the theory to the method and admit a limit. Her old nine pages did none of these things.

There is no single rule for where it goes. The OpenLearn unit says that in a master's dissertation the framework usually sits within chapter two, alongside the review of literature. The USC guide places it in the introduction of a research paper, after the research problem. Rules differ between universities and departments, so look at recent theses from your own department and ask your guide.

In qualitative research the role is softer. A theory can guide what you ask and suggest first codes, but you do not test it with statistics, and your use of it may change as the interviews come in. See qualitative vs quantitative research for how the two kinds of study differ.

These are the mistakes examiners notice most often. The first five are on the OpenLearn unit's list:

• using "theoretical framework" and "conceptual framework" as if they meant the same thing;
• writing a summary of other people's work instead of a framework;
• naming a theory without defending the choice;
• not linking the framework back to your own study;
• relying on textbooks instead of journal articles;
• describing many theories and using none of them.

The fix for most of them is to keep using the theory: your methodology measures its concepts, and your discussion says whether your results support, extend or challenge it.

Shruti's framework is now four pages instead of nine. When Dr. Sengar read it, she opened the questionnaire, found section A and nodded. "Now I can see the theory," she said. "Keep it with you until the last chapter."