Rethinking Concept Analysis

RETHINKING CONCEPT ANALYSIS 1
Rethinking Concept Analysis
Dr. Mark Risjord Philosophy Department and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing Emory University [e-mail] September 2008 DRAFT Under editorial review Please do not cite without permission
INTRODUCTION
Concept analysis has a mixed reputation in nursing scholarship. Since Walker and Avant introduced it in Strategies for Theory Construction in Nursing (2005, first edition 1983), textbooks have stated that concept analysis is necessary for theory development. Yet, many commentators have found concept analysis troublesome. Rodgers remarked that it is "not clear" how Walker and Avant 's method "actually contributes to further intellectual progression" (Rodgers, 1989, p. 331). After discussing Walker and Avant, as well as Rodgers ' evolutionary method, Morse concluded that such methods "fail to produce a useful theoretical base" (Morse, 1995, p. 32). Paley concurred that concept analysis is "an arbitrary and vacuous exercise" (Paley, 1996, p. 578). Ten years later, after reviewing techniques for concept analysis, Hupcey and Penrod concluded that "the potential contribution of concept analysis on the evolution of nursing science has been constrained" (Hupcey & Penrod, 2005, p. 205). If these critics are right, then something is wrong with concept analysis in nursing.
BACKGROUND
The character of concepts is a longstanding issue, both in philosophy and nursing (Rodgers 2000b). One of the outstanding questions is how concepts relate to theories. Concepts are sometimes called "the building blocks of theory" (Walker & Avant, 2005, p. 26), and
RETHINKING CONCEPT ANALYSIS 2 published concept analyses often suggest that concepts can be fruitfully developed prior to any significant theorizing. This idea has been criticized in nursing (Paley, 1996; Rodgers, 1989, 2000b) as well as philosophy (Quine, 1953; Wittgenstein 1953). According to these critics, concepts are "theory-formed" rather than

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