Conceptual framework: Difference between revisions
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{{for multi|the concept in aesthetics and art criticism|The Conceptual Framework|the concept in computing|Conceptual schema|the concept in philosophy|Paradigm}} | {{for-multi|the concept in aesthetics and art criticism|The Conceptual Framework|the concept in computing|Conceptual schema|the concept in philosophy|Paradigm}} | ||
A '''conceptual framework''' is an [[analytical tool]] with several variations and contexts. It can be applied in different categories of work where an overall picture is needed. It is used to make conceptual distinctions and organize ideas. Strong conceptual frameworks capture something real and do this in a way that is easy to remember and apply. | A '''conceptual framework''' is an [[analytical tool]] with several variations and contexts. It can be applied in different categories of work where an overall picture is needed. It is used to make conceptual distinctions and organize ideas. Strong conceptual frameworks capture something real and do this in a way that is easy to remember and apply. | ||
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Likewise, conceptual frameworks are abstract representations, connected to the research project's goal that direct the collection and analysis of data (on the plane of observation – the ground). Critically, a football play is a "plan of action" tied to a particular, timely, purpose, usually summarized as long or short yardage.<ref name="Patricia2014">{{citation |last=Shields |first=Patricia |author-link=Patricia M. Shields |year=2014 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263861162 |title=Tools for Excellent Papers: 2014 ASPA Student Summit |publisher=[[Texas State University]] |location=[[Washington D.C.]]}} Presentation at the [[American Society for Public Administration]] annual conference, Washington DC March 15, ThisPowerPointt depicts the connection between football and conceptual frameworks in the context of a large graduate student paper. The national presentation was delivered before Public Administration graduate students in Washington DC.</ref> Shields and Rangarajan (2013) argue that it is this tie to "purpose" that makes [[American football plays]] such a good metaphor. They define a conceptual framework as "the way ideas are organized to achieve a research project's purpose".<ref name="ShieldsRangarajan2013"/> Like football plays, conceptual frameworks are connected to a research purpose or aim. [[Explanation]]<ref name="Babbie2007">{{citation |last=Babbie |first=Earl |year=2007 |title=The Practice of Social Research |edition=11th |location=[[Belmont, California|Belmont, CA]] |page=89 |publisher=[[Thompson Media Group|Thompson]], [[Cengage|Wadsworth]]}} Babbie also identifies exploration and description as purposes of empirical research</ref> is the most common type of research purpose employed in empirical research. The formal [[hypothesis]] of a scientific investigation is the framework associated with [[explanation]]<!-- this is not a complete sentence. -->.<ref name="Brains_al2011">{{citation |last1=Brains |first1=C. |last2=Willnat |first2=L. |last3=Manheim |first3=J. |last4=Rich |first4=R. |year=2011 |title=Empirical Political Analysis: Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods |location=[[New York City|New York, NY]] |publisher=[[Longman]] |pages=75–77}} Brains et al 2011 also identify exploration, explanation and description as research purposes. The explanation is connected to hypotheses testing (as a framework). The other research purposes are not connected to a framework.</ref> | Likewise, conceptual frameworks are abstract representations, connected to the research project's goal that direct the collection and analysis of data (on the plane of observation – the ground). Critically, a football play is a "plan of action" tied to a particular, timely, purpose, usually summarized as long or short yardage.<ref name="Patricia2014">{{citation |last=Shields |first=Patricia |author-link=Patricia M. Shields |year=2014 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263861162 |title=Tools for Excellent Papers: 2014 ASPA Student Summit |publisher=[[Texas State University]] |location=[[Washington D.C.]]}} Presentation at the [[American Society for Public Administration]] annual conference, Washington DC March 15, ThisPowerPointt depicts the connection between football and conceptual frameworks in the context of a large graduate student paper. The national presentation was delivered before Public Administration graduate students in Washington DC.</ref> Shields and Rangarajan (2013) argue that it is this tie to "purpose" that makes [[American football plays]] such a good metaphor. They define a conceptual framework as "the way ideas are organized to achieve a research project's purpose".<ref name="ShieldsRangarajan2013"/> Like football plays, conceptual frameworks are connected to a research purpose or aim. [[Explanation]]<ref name="Babbie2007">{{citation |last=Babbie |first=Earl |year=2007 |title=The Practice of Social Research |edition=11th |location=[[Belmont, California|Belmont, CA]] |page=89 |publisher=[[Thompson Media Group|Thompson]], [[Cengage|Wadsworth]]}} Babbie also identifies exploration and description as purposes of empirical research</ref> is the most common type of research purpose employed in empirical research. The formal [[hypothesis]] of a scientific investigation is the framework associated with [[explanation]]<!-- this is not a complete sentence. -->.<ref name="Brains_al2011">{{citation |last1=Brains |first1=C. |last2=Willnat |first2=L. |last3=Manheim |first3=J. |last4=Rich |first4=R. |year=2011 |title=Empirical Political Analysis: Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods |location=[[New York City|New York, NY]] |publisher=[[Longman]] |pages=75–77}} Brains et al 2011 also identify exploration, explanation and description as research purposes. The explanation is connected to hypotheses testing (as a framework). The other research purposes are not connected to a framework.</ref> | ||
Explanatory research usually focuses on "why" or "what caused" a phenomenon. Formal hypotheses posit possible explanations (answers to the why question) that are tested by collecting data and assessing the evidence (usually quantitative using statistical tests). For example, Kai Huang wanted to determine what factors contributed to residential fires in U.S. cities. Three factors were posited to influence residential fires. These factors (environment, population, and building characteristics) became the hypotheses or conceptual framework he used to achieve his purpose – explain factors that influenced home fires in [[United States|U.S.]] cities.<ref name="Huang2009">{{citation |last=Huang |first=Kai |title=Population and Building Factors that impact residential fire rates in Large U.S. Cities | | Explanatory research usually focuses on "why" or "what caused" a phenomenon. Formal hypotheses posit possible explanations (answers to the why question) that are tested by collecting data and assessing the evidence (usually quantitative using statistical tests). For example, Kai Huang wanted to determine what factors contributed to residential fires in U.S. cities. Three factors were posited to influence residential fires. These factors (environment, population, and building characteristics) became the hypotheses or conceptual framework he used to achieve his purpose – explain factors that influenced home fires in [[United States|U.S.]] cities.<ref name="Huang2009">{{citation |last=Huang |first=Kai |title=Population and Building Factors that impact residential fire rates in Large U.S. Cities |type=Masters of Public Administration Applied Research Project |publisher=Department of Political Science, Texas State University-San Marcos |date= Spring 2009 |page=42 |url=https://digital.library.txstate.edu/handle/10877/3592 }} The formal hypotheses took the form of relational statements. H1: environmental factors influence residential fire rates; H2: population characteristics influence residential fire rates; H3: Building factors influence residential fire rates. These hypotheses could be represented visually as H1: A → RFR; H2: B → RFR; H3: C → RFR where A = environmental factors; B = population characteristics; C = Building Factors and RFR = Residential Fire Rates.</ref> | ||
== Types == | == Types == | ||
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* Pillar questions – [[exploration]] or [[exploratory research]] | * Pillar questions – [[exploration]] or [[exploratory research]] | ||
* Descriptive categories – [[description]] or [[descriptive research]] | * Descriptive categories – [[description]] or [[descriptive research]] | ||
* Practical ideal type – gauging<ref>Shields, P. M., Casula, M., & Rangarajan, N. (2025). The Case for Gauging as a Research Purpose in Public Administration: Connecting Purpose, Frameworks, Design, and Norms in Applied Research. Administration & Society, 57(2), 281-309. (https:// | * Practical ideal type – gauging<ref>Shields, P. M., Casula, M., & Rangarajan, N. (2025). The Case for Gauging as a Research Purpose in Public Administration: Connecting Purpose, Frameworks, Design, and Norms in Applied Research. Administration & Society, 57(2), 281-309. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00953997241303932)</ref> | ||
* Models of [[operations research]] – [[decision making]] | * Models of [[operations research]] – [[decision making]] | ||
* Formal hypothesis – [[explanation]] and [[prediction]] | * Formal hypothesis – [[explanation]] and [[prediction]] | ||
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== Further reading == | == Further reading == | ||
* {{cite book |last=Kaplan |first=Abraham |author-link=Abraham Kaplan |title=The Conduct of Inquiry: Methodology for Behavioral Science |location=[[Scranton, Pennsylvania|Scranton, PA]] |publisher=Chandler Publishing Co. |isbn=978-0-3521-1700-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/conductofinquiry0000kapl |url-access=registration |quote=conceptual framework. |year=1964}} | * {{cite book |last=Kaplan |first=Abraham |author-link=Abraham Kaplan |title=The Conduct of Inquiry: Methodology for Behavioral Science |location=[[Scranton, Pennsylvania|Scranton, PA]] |publisher=Chandler Publishing Co. |isbn=978-0-3521-1700-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/conductofinquiry0000kapl |url-access=registration |quote=conceptual framework. |year=1985 |orig-date=1964}} | ||
* {{cite journal |last=Botha |first=M. E. |year=1989 |title=Theory Development in Perspective: The Role of Conceptual Frameworks and Models in Theory Development |journal=[[Journal of Advanced Nursing]] |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=49–55 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2648.1989.tb03404.x|pmid=2926015 }} | * {{cite journal |last=Botha |first=M. E. |year=1989 |title=Theory Development in Perspective: The Role of Conceptual Frameworks and Models in Theory Development |journal=[[Journal of Advanced Nursing]] |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=49–55 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2648.1989.tb03404.x|pmid=2926015 }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Dewey |first=John |author-link=John Dewey |year=1938 |title=Logic: The Theory of Inquiry |location=New York |publisher=[[Holt McDougal|Holt, Rinehart and Winston]] |isbn=978-0-0300-5250-7}} | * {{cite book |last=Dewey |first=John |author-link=John Dewey |year=1982 |orig-date=1938 |title=Logic: The Theory of Inquiry |location=New York |publisher=[[Holt McDougal|Holt, Rinehart and Winston]] |isbn=978-0-0300-5250-7}} | ||
* Shields, Patricia and Rangarajan, Nandhini. (2013). ''A Playbook for Research Methods: Integrating Conceptual Frameworks and Project Management''. Stillwater, OK; New Forums Press ({{ISBN|1-58107-247-3}}) | * Shields, Patricia and Rangarajan, Nandhini. (2013). ''A Playbook for Research Methods: Integrating Conceptual Frameworks and Project Management''. Stillwater, OK; New Forums Press ({{ISBN|1-58107-247-3}}) | ||
Latest revision as of 13:03, 18 December 2025
Template:Short description Template:For-multi A conceptual framework is an analytical tool with several variations and contexts. It can be applied in different categories of work where an overall picture is needed. It is used to make conceptual distinctions and organize ideas. Strong conceptual frameworks capture something real and do this in a way that is easy to remember and apply.
Examples
Isaiah Berlin used the metaphor of a "fox" and a "hedgehog" to make conceptual distinctions in how important philosophers and authors view the world.[1] Berlin describes hedgehogs as those who use a single idea or organizing principle to view the world (such as Dante Alighieri, Blaise Pascal, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Plato, Henrik Ibsen and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel). Foxes, on the other hand, incorporate a type of pluralism and view the world through multiple, sometimes conflicting, lenses (examples include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, James Joyce, William Shakespeare, Aristotle, Herodotus, Molière, and Honoré de Balzac).
Economists use the conceptual framework of supply and demand to distinguish between the behavior and incentive systems of firms and consumers.[2] Like many other conceptual frameworks, supply and demand can be presented through visual or graphical representations (see demand curve). Both political science and economics use principal agent theory as a conceptual framework. The politics-administration dichotomy is a long-standing conceptual framework used in public administration.[3]
All three of these cases are examples of a macro-level conceptual framework.
Overview
The use of the term conceptual framework crosses both scale (large and small theories)[4][5] and contexts (social science,[6][7] marketing,[8] applied science,[9] art[10] etc.). The explicit definition of what a conceptual framework is and its application can therefore vary.
Conceptual frameworks are beneficial as organizing devices in empirical research. One set of scholars has applied the notion of a conceptual framework to deductive, empirical research at the micro- or individual study level.[11][12][13][14] They employ American football plays as a useful metaphor to clarify the meaning of conceptual framework (used in the context of a deductive empirical study).
Likewise, conceptual frameworks are abstract representations, connected to the research project's goal that direct the collection and analysis of data (on the plane of observation – the ground). Critically, a football play is a "plan of action" tied to a particular, timely, purpose, usually summarized as long or short yardage.[15] Shields and Rangarajan (2013) argue that it is this tie to "purpose" that makes American football plays such a good metaphor. They define a conceptual framework as "the way ideas are organized to achieve a research project's purpose".[13] Like football plays, conceptual frameworks are connected to a research purpose or aim. Explanation[16] is the most common type of research purpose employed in empirical research. The formal hypothesis of a scientific investigation is the framework associated with explanation.[17]
Explanatory research usually focuses on "why" or "what caused" a phenomenon. Formal hypotheses posit possible explanations (answers to the why question) that are tested by collecting data and assessing the evidence (usually quantitative using statistical tests). For example, Kai Huang wanted to determine what factors contributed to residential fires in U.S. cities. Three factors were posited to influence residential fires. These factors (environment, population, and building characteristics) became the hypotheses or conceptual framework he used to achieve his purpose – explain factors that influenced home fires in U.S. cities.[18]
Types
Several types of conceptual frameworks have been identified,[13][14][19] and line up with a research purpose in the following ways:
- Working hypothesis – exploration or exploratory research[20]
- Pillar questions – exploration or exploratory research
- Descriptive categories – description or descriptive research
- Practical ideal type – gauging[21]
- Models of operations research – decision making
- Formal hypothesis – explanation and prediction
Note that Shields and Rangarajan (2013) do not claim that the above is the only framework-purpose pairing. Nor do they claim the system is applicable to inductive forms of empirical research. Rather, the conceptual framework-research purpose pairings they propose are useful and provide new scholars a point of departure to develop their own research design.[13]
Frameworks have also been used to explain conflict theory and the balance necessary to reach what amounts to a resolution. Within these conflict frameworks, visible and invisible variables function under concepts of relevance. Boundaries form and within these boundaries, tensions regarding laws and chaos (or freedom) are mitigated. These frameworks often function like cells, with sub-frameworks, stasis, evolution and revolution.[22] Anomalies may exist without adequate "lenses" or "filters" to see them and may become visible only when the tools exist to define them.[23]
See also
References
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; 1986 New York: Simon and Schuster, introduction by M. Walzer.
- ↑ Colander, David. 2013. Microeconomics, 9th edition, New York: McGraw Hill and Frank, Robert and Ben Bernanke. 2013. Principles of Microeconomics, 5th edition. New York: McGraw Hill.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ Moorstein, Mark. Frameworks, Conflict in Balance.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". endnote #47
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- ↑ a b c d Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Presentation at the American Society for Public Administration annual conference, Washington DC March 15, ThisPowerPointt depicts the connection between football and conceptual frameworks in the context of a large graduate student paper. The national presentation was delivered before Public Administration graduate students in Washington DC.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Babbie also identifies exploration and description as purposes of empirical research
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Brains et al 2011 also identify exploration, explanation and description as research purposes. The explanation is connected to hypotheses testing (as a framework). The other research purposes are not connected to a framework.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". The formal hypotheses took the form of relational statements. H1: environmental factors influence residential fire rates; H2: population characteristics influence residential fire rates; H3: Building factors influence residential fire rates. These hypotheses could be represented visually as H1: A → RFR; H2: B → RFR; H3: C → RFR where A = environmental factors; B = population characteristics; C = Building Factors and RFR = Residential Fire Rates.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Casula, M., Rangarajan, N. & Shields, P. The potential of working hypotheses for deductive exploratory research. Qual Quant (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-020-01072-9
- ↑ Shields, P. M., Casula, M., & Rangarajan, N. (2025). The Case for Gauging as a Research Purpose in Public Administration: Connecting Purpose, Frameworks, Design, and Norms in Applied Research. Administration & Society, 57(2), 281-309. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00953997241303932)
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Thomas Kuhn. (1996) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
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Further reading
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- Shields, Patricia and Rangarajan, Nandhini. (2013). A Playbook for Research Methods: Integrating Conceptual Frameworks and Project Management. Stillwater, OK; New Forums Press (Template:ISBN)