Thorngate's postulate of commensurate complexity: Difference between revisions

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'''Thorngate's postulate of commensurate complexity'''<ref name="Weick01"/> is the description of a [[social science]] phenomenon concerning directions and results of research conducted. [[Karl E. Weick]] maintains that research in the field of social psychology can – at a time – achieve only two out of the three [[Metatheory|meta-theoretical]] virtues "Generality", "Accuracy" and "Simplicity", and that the third aspect therefore must be neglected in any research.<ref name="DBO"/> The name of the theorem is derived from the Canadian social psychologist Warren Thorngate of the [[University of Alberta]], whose work is quoted by Weick.<ref name="DBO"/><ref name="Thorngate76"/>

== Background ==

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* if research general and accurate (2-o'clock research), results would not be simple any more.

Basically, Weick maintains, that there is a trade-off between these three in such a way that only two can be achieved at any given time. Research therefore must operate in different modes to capture reality in sufficient precision and granularity.<ref name="Weick02"/> The theorem therefore becomes descriptive of research and prescriptive of research methologymethodology.

== Criticism ==

Though confirming the theorem in general, Fred Dickinson, Carol Blair and Brian L. Ott critizicecriticized Weicks use of the word "accurate".<ref name="DBO"/> Accuracy is hard to achieve, especially if the topic is difficult to qualify, e.&nbsp;g. in researching memory. They suggest replacing the term "accurate" with "interpretive utility".<ref name="DBO"/>

== Sources ==