Hindu devotees light oil lamps during the Diwali festival, on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern Indian city of Allahabad on November 6, 2014. Diwali, also known as Deepawali, is the five-day Indian festival of lights celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists around the world. While the holiday is observed by people of different faiths for different reasons, they all acknowledge its underlying theme: the victory of good over evil and the triumph of light over darkness.
Instance. Specific: Hypothesis is usually based on a very specific observation and is limited to that instance. General: A theory is the establishment of a general principle through multiple tests and experiments, and this principle may apply to various specific instances.
3. Theory and Why It is Important. A theory presents a systematic way of understanding events, behaviors and/or situations. A theory is a set of interrelated concepts, definitions, and propositions that explains or predicts events or situations by specifying relations among variables. The notion of generality, or broad application, is important. Thus, theories are by their nature abstract and not content- or topic-specific. Even though various theoretical models of health behavior may reflect the same general ideas, each theory employs a unique vocabulary to articulate the specific factors considered to be important.