Facet theory (FT) is a categorical approach to research with its own clearly stated philosophical ontology: an empirical mereology. This monograph is an account of the basics of the facet theory analytic approach, its application and some of its contemporary extensions. The book is a research-based reflection upon the development, applied utility and the conceptual underpinnings of facet theory and mapping sentences (MS) as used in my own research. In the text I initially chart the development of the facet theory approach, both as I have used this in my teaching and research over the past 25 years, and as used by other academic and research professionals. I will also consider David Canter’s investigative psychology, which probably represents the most significant advancement in the facet approach of the last 25 years (Canter and Youngs, 2009). However, more specifically I neoterically propose the mapping sentence as a stand-alone research instrument, a project management and research presentation tool: I promote the stand-alone mapping sentence and the process of facet modelling to expiate some of the difficulties that arise in both traditional facet theory research (e.g., the limited number of facets in a study) and traditional multi-variable research (with its tendency to conduct a theoretical and non-cumulative research). Thus, in the present text I will bring together contemporary facet theory–based research, and suggest future directions the approach may take. I also suggest qualitative and philosophical orientations to facet theory as extensions to the applied research capabilities of the theory.

Within this monograph, the broad area of facet theory and basic information about the facet theory approach are reviewed, while emphasising a predominantly applied research perspective. To these ends, examples of the application of the theory are given without statistical formulas or the inclusion of analysis algorithms for formal facet theory analyses³ as these are more suited to a very different approach to facet theory. The monograph takes the form of a single research-based narrative rather than a collection of readings. The book differs from previously published books on facet theory as it is centred upon the possibilities of qualitative facet theory and the research-based development of the mapping sentence as a stand-alone approach, as a tool to theoretically structure research projects: an approach that guides research design, execution and analysis but does not lead to the analysis of data structure or regional hypotheses implicit in traditional facet theory research. I also deliberate upon the use of the mapping sentence as a tool for integrating existing and contemporary research that originates from outside of facet theory and I present facet theory and mapping sentence applications to areas of research that are novel to the approach, such as the development of an understanding of fine art (painting) with the subsequent production of artwork based upon this taxonomic knowledge. I also illustrate the use of a mapping sentence and the theoretical foundations of facet theory with clients within psychotherapeutic situations and as a component of therapeutic interventions. Reflecting upon an established theory from viewpoints other than those traditionally associated with that theory lead to avail interesting and useful insight about the established theoretical approach and may assist in extending the approach’s utility. An example of this observational ‘side-step’ is one that may allow the use of methodology from an approach without the constraints of the fully developed theory. Moreover, I opine that by taking a theoretically abbreviated, some would say debased and illegitimate, consideration of a theory it is sometimes possible to develop novel understandings and applications for the established theory. This may also suggest possible applied areas of utility for the relatively theoretical methodology used and perhaps for the ‘full-blown’ theory itself.

Facet theory incorporates the notion that in order to produce research findings that are valid and reliable, a research domain has to be broken down into parts that are significant to its subjects and then these components are pulled together as a meaningful whole. The manner in which this mereological understanding of a research domain is broken down and then reassembled is through clear and explicit establishment of context-specific definitional categories.⁴ Within the social sciences facet theory has addressed mereological research design issues producing categorical definitions for a wide range of research domains, allowing the production of research results that explicitly relate to given areas of research (Hackett, 2013). Facet theory approach to social science research is founded upon the establishment of respondent-defined categories and the exploration of how these categories come together within a person’s everyday life.

When interpreting a mapping sentence, the reader commences as if this were an ordinary English language sentence.⁶ In the example I provide, the letter (x) designates an individual person or event that is the subject of the sentence. One then progresses by reading through the sentence selecting just one of the facet elements (italicised words) from each facet (emboldened ‘facet’ labels that comprise the vertical clusters of ‘types’ of content area) to form a sentence. In the case of the MS in Figure 1.1, the structural content of the MS enables any one of my exchanges with colleagues to be dissected into its pertinent sub-components. The MS also permits the totality of the communication to be described and understood when read as a sentence. This example MS is an initial attempt to describe the content area of academic discourse. Even restricting myself to just the limited number and type of exchanges that occurred between my colleagues and me, the MS and its facets are almost certainly inadequate to fully describe all of the exchanges that occurred. However, a mapping sentence may progress from being a theoretical initial hypothesis of a content area and through empirical investigation may become a ‘valid’ representation of a content area. Facets and their elements are added, delete...