Introduction

Hi Dissertation Writer! If you have found your way to this article, you are probably feeling lost. Not only are you disoriented, but you are “lost” in the worst way: You are lost when it does not have to be this way!  

Purpose of this Article

Most doctoral candidates, in my experience, regard theoretical frameworks and conceptual frameworks as one of the hardest-to-understand aspects of their doctoral dissertation. Many doctoral programs do not teach theoretical or conceptual frameworks within their writing or research courses (if they have such courses!). Further, many doctoral programs, for many good reasons, emphasize learning objectives that will immediately be useful for the learner in the field – leaving “theory” to be a lesser-emphasized aspect of a student’s doctoral experience. Accordingly, clarity around this topic is not “easy” to find.

What is a theoretical framework? What is a conceptual framework?

In the most basic sense, both theoretical and conceptual frameworks are “lenses” through which you could look at a particular researchable problem. For example, if you were interested in what lived experiences led to a specific set of nurses to be successful, you could choose many different lenses to guide that exploration. You could be interested in the mentoring they received, so you might pick “mentorship” as your lens. Alternatively, you might be interested in how their experiences related to the intersection of their gender, ethnicity, and generational identities, so you could pick “intersectionality” as your lens. Likewise, you might be interested in their leadership behaviors, so you could choose a lens that relates to “leadership.” Notice how in all these cases, we went from the whole world of possibilities about what you COULD explore about these successful nurses into a specific avenue of exploration. That’s what theoretical and conceptual frameworks do: They are one of many mechanisms in your dissertation that provides greater focus in your study. Still, choosing “mentorship,” “intersectionality,” or “leadership” is not the same thing as selecting a theoretical or conceptual framework. It’s the first step.

Are theoretical and conceptual frameworks the same thing?

It really depends on who you ask. In the strictest definition, which I don’t recommend you adopt, one could say that a theoretical framework is chosen, whereas a conceptual framework is created. In this very strict definition, a theoretical framework is a specific, existing theory or model that you select as the lens through which you will look at your study’s specific researchable problem. Your theoretical framework has a specific name and is attributable to a specific author or set of authors. In this, still, very strict definition, a conceptual framework is a theory or model of your own creation – built because you did not feel that there was an existing theory or model out there that, alone, could help explore the specific researchable problem named by your study. To build such a model, you would take “concepts” from various theories and models out there in the literature. You then would put them together in your own “Frankenstein Monster” of models. However, before I start getting hate-mail, I want to say that this definition is way too strict – as it does not account for how different doctoral programs (and even different dissertation chairs/advisors) treat these terms. Some programs will require you to use a theoretical framework for quantitative studies and a conceptual framework for qualitative studies. Some programs will only allow you to use what they call a conceptual framework. Some programs treat theoretical and conceptual frameworks as the same thing! Others have even created their own terms (which I won’t mention here) to describe these frameworks.