ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a strategy for theory-mapping the theoretical components of social research applications. It argues that much social research rests upon two theoretical components: a set of hypothesized measurement relationships and a set of hypothesized causal relationships. The chapter elaborates this interpretation of the theoretical character of causal and measurement relationships, showing how the analytical framework associated with structural equation modeling can be used as a conceptual tool to map both explicit and implicit theoretical structures in research applications. It uses social learning research for illustrative effort because it represents a compact and theoretically coherent body of work. The chapter suggests that this strategy can illuminate important theoretical issues, as well as reveal new insights about and questions for the research literature being mapped. It also argues that the general analytical framework that is associated with structural equation modeling can be used to represent the underlying theoretical structures employed in many areas of sociological research.
