Research paper for psychology for advertising

What is a theory? On the whole one would be surprised to know how frequently the term theory is being used in the daily wayward life. Historically speaking the term theory actually dates back to the 1500s where is used to define a perception or a structure. In simple terms it is used to make a valid point in terms of a particular proposition that is backed by substantial evidence. Along with that a theory also presents a fact or statement that is testable and that these are commonly regarded to be accurate and these could be relied upon and be used in day-to-day life. It is also needless to say that it is supposed to contain logical connections and often required to correlate with one another. However there are different viewpoint which can be used to look at theories and that theories are portrayed, in terms of science a theory isnt only a conjecture but more of a hunch, which has been tested time and again and has been backed up by solid statements, which make it completely decidable. But in terms of psychology theories are put into use in order to provide a better understanding as to how the complicated thought process and emotions of humans work. There are different kinds of theories that exist all over and that too in different fields such as mathematics or science etc. But since this particular research paper is about psychology, lets provide some insights upon the different kinds of theories that exist in the field of psychology. The first ones in line are the developmental theories; these ones just set basic guiding principles and procedures to what the human behavior is supposed to be

like. Some theories are such that they focus on a specific quality such as moral development whereas there are others that emphasize more on growth and what all phases life goes through good examples of developmental theories include the moral development theory by Kohlberg or the psychosocial theory by Erikson. Secondly come in the grand theories, these are the theories that formed comprehensive ideas that were proposed by researchers at once upon a time. But at the moment they are considered to be old-fashioned and not even properly complete as far as modern era research is concerned. But still some of these grand theories are till date put to use as far as initial research is concerned. Some of the avid thinkers who were responsible in the creation of many grand theories include Sigmund Freud and Jan Piaget. Third on the row is minitheories, and standing true to its name these theories represent a smaller but substantial section of the grand theories and yet on their own do not explain human behaviors and mannerisms. The last one is emergent theories, this is the term given to relevantly new theories, and combining different minitheories methodically forms them and these are somewhat bigger than minitheories but not as big and broad and far reaching as the grand theories, one worthwhile example of emergent theory could be cited as the socio cultural theory proposed by Lev Vygotsky. What are the criteria for a good theory? Now that we know what is a theory and what are its possible explanations and also the different kind of theories that exist around us, it would make one ponder the fact that what exactly is a good theory and based on what do these thinkers or researchers drawn upon a good theory. So far we know that the main purpose or aim of a theory is to explain a certain particular aspect to the world, but that also doesnt mean that just because a theory

is stating something it doesnt actually have to contain or possess content, and the simplest and easiest method of finding if a theory actually has content is by testing if it can be disproved or no. if a theory cannot be refuted it gives us two implications, one being that either it is very poorly explained or the main aim or objects are detached from the actual world. So all this proves to us that a particular theory can contain content but cannot actually be used in principle at least not without systematic testing. This is a problem that has generally been there for all psychological theories, and this is owing to the fact that psychological theories generally provide some facts regarding the internal life of one person or a group of persons and based upon those facts a futuristic behavior pattern is predicted. Though these things havent gone unnoticed by researchers but so far the search to fine one possible solution to all problems has been futile.

However there are other qualities that a good theory should possess four of which are really worthwhile mentioning in lieu of this particular paper. The first one is very basic and that is any good theory makes its inapplicability promptly and obscurely known, any good theory from the start should be clear in its own sense to be used an applied in which scenario. This serves a twofold purpose, one being that the theory is clear about its boundaries and second being it paves a better way of understanding the elusiveness and limitations. The second quality any good theory can have is that a theory should approximate the objects used in it and not the relationships that exist between them. A good example to demonstrate this particular quality would be John Rawls theory of justice in which placed more emphasis as to how the individuals will fare upon interacting with one another rather that emphasizing more on how they will fare personally. The third good quality of a theory

is that a theory should tell you what it cant tell you. A theory should incorporate its own limits efficiently so that it can move away potentially inquiries that are fruitless. The fourth and final good quality that a theory should possess that it should provide predictions on the basis of older ones and that too rapidly, however having said that it should also be kept in mind how much uncertainty the theory is going to cope up with and to what degree will the theory be utilized. These are but few of the criteria that determine if or not a theory can be classified as good or not. There are other criteria as well such as in terms of scientific theories every good theory is supposed to prohibit certain things and the more it prohibits the better it is. Then there is one that says that every single genuine test of a theory is like taking a shot to falsify it, so the more exposed it is to refutation the more testable a theory turns out to be. Lastly before moving on to the next topic, there are certain testable theories which were genuine but when still found false continued to be upheld by their admirers and kept on being introduced in terms of auxiliary assumptions thereby saving themselves from refutation. Is there a theory for advertising? The last section of this particular paper deals with the query that is there something called as a theory in advertising. As far as theories in advertising are concerned, there are several theories but majority of them focus more upon how effective the advertising is and how to get the specific brand more exposure and increase customer loyalty. There is a specific set of messages, content and special characters that is being put to use in these advertising theories. There are other advertising specific theories that exist around, such as the means end theory. The means end theory is a manner in which the customers relate to the products and it is usually represented with the help of a hierarchical model with three different levels; attributes

of the product, consequences arising from usage and ones own personal values. The second theory which is widely used in the field of advertising is the leverage points theory in which the customers personal benefits are linked in with the attributes of the products and the theory states that the higher the leverage points are the stronger the attitude change. The third theory used in advertising is more of a model that was developed by Robert Lavidge and Gary Steiner way back in the early 1960s, it is called the Hierarchy of effects Model and it served as a marketing communication model and according to this model it is evident that there six steps from viewing a product to actually buying it. These steps are as follows Awareness, Knowledge, Liking, Preference, Conviction and then finally Purchase. This particular model/ theory is termed as a hierarchy and that is because as the stages or steps move downwards the number of customers keep decreasing, because a number of customer will see the product but will not take the remaining steps towards buying it. It takes a lot of hard work in order to get a customer through all these six stages and then buying the product. Thus with the explanation of the following points I would like to conclude this particular research paper and wrap up with the following points. Theory as a whole could be a statement, a scheme or even a research but it should be tested and tried time and again in order to keep the information reliable. There is nothing like a set criterion for a theory to be good or bad or even to be acceptable, there have been well done researches which could not be formulated into theories and there also have been smaller researches which have been turned into profound theories by philosophical thinkers. As far as theories in advertising is concerned, the main aim behind these theories are understand the path as to how a customer can be enticed into buying a specific product and how to get more and more customers and keep

them attached to the brand for a longer period of time. There are three different theories at the moment which try to explain that and that are the means end theory in which deal in how the customers relate to the product, the second one being the leverage theory or how enticing a product can be to a particular customer in order to develop a stronger customer attitude. The final one is the hierarchy of effects model, and this particular theory tries to explain as to how a certain customer goes through a lot of stages before actually buying a product and how when each stage progress the number of customers moving from one to another keep on reducing to the number of customers that actually buy the product.

References
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