ABSTRACT
The primary goal in this chapter is to move the theoretical language about sacred theory into the realm of verification, validation, and refinement. As we have noted, we view the process of theory building as ongoing and developmental. By developmental we mean the theoretical ideas within any theory should not be thought of as stationary. Instead, theory-building processes are ongoing and dynamic. For example, reading Bronfenbrenner’s (1979; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) ecological systems theory, one is immediately struck with the evolving and developmental nature of the emergence of his key ideas (Tudge et al., 2009). In like manner, Boss’s (1999, 2006) theory of boundary ambiguity has evolved for several decades as it has been refined and tested. In each case (and in many others that could be cited), a germ of an idea was created, and through multiple iterations a more refined and useful theory emerged.
