A colleague and I are working on developing a communication theory. This of course synthesizes prior literature, but we also have survey data we gathered to help us "make the case" for how the theory works and how it is applicable. Does anyone have a good example of how this is done? In particular, we're looking for how to do a "method section" when in theory development there typically isn't a formal section.
A potential place to look would be how Milgram experimented with the "Small World" theory of social networks, or that people are networked in such a way that there exist some very short paths between two random individuals. The experiment was used as empirical evidence to bolster the theory (though had its limitations). It gave rise to the concept of "six degrees of separation".
The nice feature of this study is that being extremely old and well known it is widely available on the net. It outlines the theory and then goes through the experiment and how the experiment helps "make the case" for the small world hypothesis.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2786545
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