What do theorists do

Examples of theorist in a Sentence Recent Examples on the Web Avanti becomes obsessed with the mystery of its existence, which turns her into a bit of a conspiracy theorist. First Known Use of theorist , in the meaning defined above. Learn More About theorist. Time Traveler for theorist The first known use of theorist was in See more words from the same year.

Style: MLA. English Language Learners Definition of theorist. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Its content may be obsolete. For obscure reasons, physicists - at CERN as everywhere else - like to categorize themselves in different classes, such as theorists, experimentalists, accelerator physicists, technicians, Of course, each class is convinced to be dominant over all the others, and that physics is best served by them.

Theorists often think they do create physics with their theory, experimentalists often think they do discover or invent physics with their experiments, accelerator physicists often think they make it possible with their instruments, So, what is the difference between, say, a theorist and an experimentalist?

From the point of view of an experimentalist, it could be summarized with the following two jokes:. An experimentalist has worked out an empirical equation that seems to explain his data.

He asks the theorists to have a look at it. A week later, the theorist says that the equation is invalid, but the experimentalist used his equation to predict the results of further experiments and gets excellent results.

So he asks the theorists to look again. Another week goes by and they meet once more. The theorist tells the experimentalist that the equation does work, "but only in the trivial case where the numbers are real and positive.

The experimentalist comes running excitedly in the theorist's office, waving a graph taken off his latest experiment. Here is the reason. In the middle of it, the experimentalist says "Wait a minute" , studies the chart for a second and says "Oops, this is upside down. The statements are true, but as you might expect, the resulting portrait of ivory tower isolation misses the mark.

Theorists work with experimentalists, their counterparts in the proverbial field, as a vital part of the feedback loop of scientific investigation. My job is all about pushing the knowledge forward so other people can use it. Theorists in particle physics — the Higgses and Hawkings of the world — push knowledge by making predictions about particle interactions. Experimentalists can then seek out the predicted phenomena, rooting around in the data for a never-before-seen phenomenon.

Like an experienced paleontologist, the theorist can tell the experimentalist where to dig to find something new. The Higgs boson provides one example. Many of the predictions were indeed in the neighborhood of the mass as measured by the two experiments.

She might compare the particle signatures in the detector against her many fake events. Or given an intriguing measurement, she might fold it into the next iteration of calculations.

Do you know of any Standard Model particle that fits? And since the grand aim of particle physics theory is to be able to explain all of nature, the calculation developed to explain a new phenomenon must be extendible to a general principle. So you look for small deviations that might be a sign of something.

Psychologists and researchers often use grand theories as a basis for exploration, but consider smaller theories and recent research as well. Mini-theories describe a small, very particular aspect of development. These theories are often rooted in the ideas established by grand theories, but they do not seek to describe and explain the whole of human behavior and growth. Emergent theories are those that have been created relatively recently and are often formed by systematically combining various mini-theories.

These theories draw on research and ideas from different disciplines but are not yet as broad or far-reaching as grand theories. The sociocultural theory proposed by Lev Vygotsky is a good example of an emergent theory of development. Some of the best-known theories of psychology focus on specific branches within psychology.

Some of these include:. Behavioral psychology , also known as behaviorism, is a theory of learning based on the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning. Advocated by famous psychologists such as John B. Watson and B. Skinner , behavioral theories dominated psychology during the early half of the twentieth century.

Cognitive theories of psychology are focused on internal states, such as motivation , problem-solving, decision-making , thinking, and attention. Such theories strive to explain different mental processes including how the mind processes information. Humanistic psychology theories began to grow in popularity during the s. Some of the major humanist theorists included Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. Personality psychology looks at the patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behavior that make a person unique.

Some of the best-known theories in psychology are devoted to the subject of personality, including the trait theory of personality , the "big 5" theory of personality , and Erikson's theory of psychosocial development. Social psychology is focused on helping us understand and explain social behavior. In your psychology courses , you may find yourself questioning how necessary it is to learn about different psychology theories, especially those that are considered inaccurate or outdated.

However, all of these theories provide valuable information about the history of psychology, the progression of thought on a particular topic, and a deeper understanding of current theories. By understanding how thinking has progressed, you can get a better idea not only of where psychology has been, but where it might be going in the future.

Studying scientific theories can help you make better sense of what researchers mean when they talk about scientific study. It can improve your understanding of how scientific explanations for behavior and other phenomena in the natural world are formed, investigated, and accepted by the scientific community.

While debates continues to rage over hot topics, it is worthwhile to study science and the theories that have emerged from such research, even when what is often revealed might come as a harsh or inconvenient truth. As Carl Sagan once explained, "It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Much of what we know about human thought and behavior has emerged thanks to various psychology theories. For example, behavioral theories demonstrated how conditioning can be used to promote learning. By learning more about these theories, you can gain a deeper and richer understanding of psychology's past, present, and future. Ever wonder what your personality type means?