How to Theorize: A two-day workshop on creative theory generation and critical thinking

Semester

Semester 2, 2024-2025

Type of course

Methodological and Practical Courses

Date

May 15 and May 16, 2025

Location

University of Groningen

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Duration

2 days

Maximum number of participants

14

ECTS

1 EC will be appointed for participation in the complete course

Staff

Martijn van Zomeren (RUG)

Content, learning goals, preparation

Graduate school curricula typically focus on teaching students how to do research, but fail to include training on how to theorize. However, the latter is absolutely pivotal because theorizing is essential to interpreting any research finding. 

Specifically, being trained in creative theory generation and critical thinking will make one’s research designs stronger and the resulting findings more meaningful. This two-day workshop introduces the question of how to theorize through a focused, creative, and interactive approach. Its main message is that, much like doing research, theorizing is something that is fun, interactive, and inherently social. As such, it can be learned through exercise and training. 

In the workshop, we will focus, for instance, on using helpful heuristics to creatively generate hypotheses (based on McGuire’s (1997) approach); and on ‘critical thinking’ that revolves around identifying and playing around with meta-theoretical assumptions (Slife & Williams, 1995); introspectively and collectively defining core concepts in social psychology (through the Socratic Dialogue technique); and identifying one’s own ‘hidden assumptions’ about what one studies.

Through this hands-on approach, this workshop should not just lead to more knowledge and understanding of how to theorize, but also to a more creative and critical approach to theory and research in social psychology.

Literature

Compulsory articles and book chapters to be read in advance will be provided, as these will be actively used in the workshop.