GENERALITY AND NECESSITY IN THREE TYPES OF THEORY ABOUT HUMAN COMMUNICATION,WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION TO RULES THEORY

An analysis is provided of the procedures involved in creating and certifying theories constructed within the laws, systems, and rules perspectives of human communication. A comparison of these methods of theory construction reveals two criteria for assessing the epistemological and metaphysical claims of all such theories. Each of these methods attempts to establish propositions which are general rather than particular and which are necessary rather than accidental. The manner in which each perspective establishes these claims is delimited with special attention being given to the procedures employed by rules theorists for establishing rigorous theories.     

Colloquy on Generalization Meta-Analytic Techniques When Generalizing to Message Populations Is Not Possible

Jackson and Jacobs (1983) have argued that many of the findings in communication research could be specific to the particular messages used in a given study. As a solution, Jackson and Jacobs propose generalizing to message populations by treating messages as a random variable. This article argues that the Jackson and Jacobs solution is inappropriate for complex messages and that meta-analytic techniques represent an alternative that permits the detection of results that are specific to particular messages, researchers, or paradigms.