<p><strong>Advancing Family Theories </strong>explores two contemporary theories of the family - rational choice theory and transition theory. These diametrically different approaches illuminate what differing theories reveal about families. The book also discusses how meta-theories can assist in building and refining theory and offers insight on the "understanding versus explanation" debate. <strong>Advancing Family Theories</strong> gives students a precise notion of what a theory is and how theories work in research. The book not only looks at philosophical realms but also examines particular substantive theory to explain and predict family behaviors.<br /><strong><br />Advancing Family Theories</strong> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "times new roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">is an excellent supplement to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Family Theories, Second Edition</b> (SAGE, 2002), or is effective on its own. </span>The book helps students with the task of taking abstract and very general theories and reducing them to a level of specific research models and hypotheses.</p>