ABSTRACT
From the Greek theoros, for ‘‘contemplation,’’ theory has three related meanings: (1) a series of linked concepts or ideas that purport to explain a set of known findings (for example, THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR); (2) a set of principles that prescribes an activity (pedagogic theory; that is, how teaching should be done); (3) an abstraction used to describe what should happen if certain conditions are met (‘‘in theory, this should work’’). The most common in sport and exercise is (1): Theories are
advanced to make sense of a PHENOMENON in terms of known principles, but in a way that clarifies or demystifies rather than establishing truth. In his classic 1963 treatise, the philosopher Karl Popper (1902-94) argued that knowledge proceeds through conjectures and refutations, theories being the incomplete information conjectured, and research being attempts to refute, or prove them wrong. If the theory is not refuted by the research, then it stands corroborated, though not proven. While good theories, for Popper, are those that are amenable
to empirical testing, the clarifying power of some theories is selfcontained. For example, the theories of Sigmund Freud (18561939) and Charles Darwin (1809-82), while thorough, cogent, and illuminating, do not lend themselves to rigorous testing, yet they have transformed the manner in which we understand ourselves.
