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7/30/2019 Research Paper for Psychology for Advertising
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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