Middle range theory

of R K Merton

Theory?
The term sociological theory refers to
logically interconnected sets of
propositions from which empirical
uniformities can be derived
For eg.,

rain falls
apple falls down
cricket ball thrown up falls down
any object thrown up falls down
earth has gravitational pull

Example
Every social group has knowledge
Individuals transmit their knowledge to
younger members
The group transfers its knowledge from
one generation to another
Every social group has mechanisms for
transferring knowledge to next
generation
This process constitutes the institution of
education
Education is a universal institution

Middle range theory?

Theories that lie between the minor

but necessary working hypotheses
that evolve in abundance during dayto-day research and the all-inclusive
systematic efforts to develop a unified
theory that will explain all the
observed uniformities of social
behaviour, social organisation and
social change

MRT

MRT is principally used in Sociology

to guide empirical inquiry. It is
intermediate to general theories of
social systems which are too remote
from particular classes of social
behaviour, organisation and social
change to account for what is
observed and to those detailed orderly
descriptions of particulars that are not
generalised at all

MRT

Antecedents
Plato talks about middle propositions
Francis Bacon about middle axioms
John Stuart Mill of middle principles
George Cornwall Lewis of limited
theories in political science
Karl Mannheim of principia media
Adolf Lowe of sociological middle
principles
T H Marshall stepping stones in the
middle distance

Antecedents

If the working philosophy embodied in

this orientation is not altogether new, it
is at least true