The Practice of Social Research

Chapter Fifteen.  The Elaboration Model


Elaboration and Ex Post Facto Hypothesizing



Ex post facto hypothesizing, or the development of hypotheses “predicting” relationships that have already been observed, is invalid in science, because it’s impossible to disconfirm such hypotheses. While nothing prevents us from suggesting reasons that observed relationships may be the way they are, we should not frame those reasons in the form of “hypotheses.” More important, one observed relationship and possible reasons for it may suggest hypotheses about other relationships that have not been examined. The elaboration model is an excellent logical device for this kind of unfolding analysis of data.