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Agent skill

Soctheory Theory Construction

by brycewang-stanford in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills

A skill your agent uses when building the actual theory for a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript — turning a positioned problem into defined concepts, explicit mechanisms, internally consistent…

MITAuto-check passedTesting & QA

Install Soctheory Theory Construction

skills CLI
$ npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill soctheory-theory-construction -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills soctheory-theory-construction --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/Sociological-Theory-Skills/skills/soctheory-theory-construction .claude/skills/soctheory-theory-construction && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
soctheory-theory-construction
GitHub stars
1.2k
Token cost
~1.4k tokens
SKILL.md length
676 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
2,387
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when building the actual theory for a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript — turning a positioned problem into defined concepts, explicit mechanisms, internally consistent…

  • Works in 6 steps: Define the concepts. For each new or… → State the assumptions. What must be true… → Specify the mechanism. The how/why — the… → …
  • Building the actual theory for a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript — turning a positioned problem into defined concepts
  • SKILL.md covers When to trigger, The build order, Concept definition template and Proposition discipline, plus 4 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Soctheory Theory Construction is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when building the actual theory for a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript — turning a positioned problem into defined concepts, explicit mechanisms, internally consistent propositions, and scope conditions. Constructs the theory; it does NOT stress-test the argument's validity against rivals (soctheory-argument-development) or set the domain limits (soctheory-boundary-conditions).

Its SKILL.md is about 1.4k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Testing & QA, covering Load testing. The repository describes itself as: Journal-specific Claude Code/Codex skill packs covering mainstream journals — AER, QJE, Nature, Cell, 管理世界, 经济研究 & 200+ more — your fast track to getting published. ｜ 覆盖主流期刊的… The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Building the actual theory for a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript — turning a positioned problem into defined concepts
  • Explicit mechanisms
  • Internally consistent propositions
  • Scope conditions

Example prompts

  • “/soctheory-theory-construction”

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Define the concepts. For each new or re-specified concept: a precise definition, its
  2. State the assumptions. What must be true about actors, situations, and the social world
  3. Specify the mechanism. The how/why — the social process that makes the relationship
  4. Derive the propositions. Each proposition is a theoretical claim that follows from the
  5. Check internal consistency. Do the propositions contradict one another? Does a later
  6. Hold the level of analysis. Micro / meso / macro: keep it consistent, or theorize the

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 932eb23. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Soctheory Theory Construction loads about 1.4k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 104 tokens; SKILL.md has 676 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~104
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.4k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills at commit 932eb23, republished under its MIT licence (© brycewang-stanford). 676 words, ~1,423 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/soctheory-theory-construction/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
soctheory-theory-construction
description
Use when building the actual theory for a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript — turning a positioned problem into defined concepts, explicit mechanisms, internally consistent propositions, and scope conditions. Constructs the theory; it does NOT stress-test the argument's validity against rivals (soctheory-argument-development) or set the domain limits (soctheory-boundary-conditions).

Theory Construction: Concepts, Mechanisms, Propositions (soctheory-theory-construction)

When to trigger

  • The problem and tradition are set; now you must build the theory
  • You have propositions but no defined concepts underneath them
  • Your relationships are asserted, not derived from a mechanism
  • The theory's internal pieces do not yet hang together consistently

The build order

ST theory is assembled in a disciplined sequence. Skipping a step is the most common reason a draft reads as "assertions, not theory." This is theory construction in Abend's formal sense (ST 2008, 26(2):173–199) — the explicit work of making concepts and their relations.

  1. Define the concepts. For each new or re-specified concept: a precise definition, its extension (what it includes and, crucially, excludes), and how it differs from neighboring concepts. A concept that overlaps an existing one without distinction will be challenged as a relabel. Sociological theory lives or dies on conceptual clarity.
  2. State the assumptions. What must be true about actors, situations, and the social world for the theory to operate (e.g., a Bourdieusian field assumes positions, capital, and stakes; a pragmatist account assumes habit interrupted by problem-situations)? Make them explicit; hidden assumptions are where reviewers attack.
  3. Specify the mechanism. The how/why — the social process that makes the relationship hold. Sociological mechanisms are the engine: how individual action aggregates, how a situation channels conduct, how meaning is enacted. A proposition without a mechanism is a correlation-in-waiting, not theory. (Cf. mechanism-based theorizing in contemporary ST.)
  4. Derive the propositions. Each proposition is a theoretical claim that follows from the concepts + mechanism. Number them (P1, P2…). Each must be preceded by the reasoning that earns it — the proposition is the summary of an argument, not a bullet.
  5. Check internal consistency. Do the propositions contradict one another? Does a later one quietly require an assumption you ruled out? Internal consistency is to ST what statistical validity is to ASR. (Validity against rivals is handled in soctheory-argument-development.)
  6. Hold the level of analysis. Micro / meso / macro: keep it consistent, or theorize the transitions (the micro-macro link) deliberately rather than sliding across levels by accident.

Concept definition template

For each concept, fill:

  • Label (one term, used consistently throughout)
  • Definition (one or two precise sentences)
  • Extension — included instances / excluded instances
  • Distinction — how it differs from the nearest existing concept
  • Level (individual / interactional / organizational / field / societal)
Show full SKILL.md (290 more words)Show less

Proposition discipline

  • A proposition states a relationship between concepts, not an empirical magnitude.
  • Every proposition is preceded by its reasoning; the proposition summarizes an argument already made.
  • Keep them theoretical (P: "the more A, the more likely B, because mechanism M"), never operational ("A measured by a scale predicts B at p<.05").
  • Never write "H1" or "supported / not supported" — that is ASR/AJS vocabulary. A proposition should be examinable in principle but you do no testing here.
  • Data, if used, is illustrative: a case shows the concept at work; it does not confirm it.

Worked anchor (real ST exemplar)

Timmermans & Tavory, "Theory Construction in Qualitative Research: From Grounded Theory to Abductive Analysis" (ST 2012, 30(3):167–186), is itself a theory of how theory is constructed — it specifies abduction as the mechanism by which surprising observations generate new theoretical claims. Study how it defines its central concepts and ties each move to an explicit inferential mechanism rather than to data.

Checklist

  • Every concept has a definition, an extension, and a distinction from neighbors
  • All assumptions are stated explicitly
  • Each relationship is driven by a named social mechanism (the how/why)
  • Propositions are numbered and each is earned by a preceding argument
  • The propositions are internally consistent (no two contradict; none smuggles a ruled-out premise)
  • Level of analysis is consistent, or level transitions are theorized
  • No empirical claims ("data show…") stand in for theoretical ones

Anti-patterns

  • Propositions stated as bullets with no preceding reasoning
  • A new concept that is an old concept with a new name (a relabel)
  • "X affects Y" with no specified mechanism
  • Assumptions left implicit, then exposed by reviewers
  • Sliding across levels of analysis without theorizing the link
  • Smuggling in empirical claims — at ST data is illustrative, never a test

Output format

【Concepts】[name: definition / extension / distinction / level] for each
【Assumptions】[explicit list]
【Mechanisms】[concept → concept : the social process that makes it hold]
【Propositions】P1…Pn (each with one-line mechanism)
【Internal consistency】checked: yes / issues: [...]
【Next step】soctheory-argument-development (validity + rivals) → soctheory-boundary-conditions

© brycewang-stanford, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in Sociological-Theory-Skills/skills/soctheory-theory-construction of brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 932eb23

Compare with similar skills

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Soctheory Theory Construction compared with similar skills
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Goalcraftgrp06/goalcraft102—~3.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
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Categories

Questions about Soctheory Theory Construction

What does Soctheory Theory Construction do?

A skill your agent uses when building the actual theory for a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript — turning a positioned problem into defined concepts, explicit mechanisms, internally consistent…. Soctheory Theory Construction is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when building the actual theory for a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript — turning a positioned problem into defined concepts, explicit mechanisms, internally consistent propositions, and scope conditions.

When should I use Soctheory Theory Construction?

Soctheory Theory Construction fits situations like: building the actual theory for a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript — turning a positioned problem into defined concepts; explicit mechanisms; internally consistent propositions; scope conditions.

How do I install Soctheory Theory Construction in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill soctheory-theory-construction -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (Sociological-Theory-Skills/skills/soctheory-theory-construction in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) into .claude/skills/soctheory-theory-construction in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Soctheory Theory Construction in Codex?

Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill soctheory-theory-construction -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (Sociological-Theory-Skills/skills/soctheory-theory-construction in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) into .agents/skills/soctheory-theory-construction in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Soctheory Theory Construction in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill soctheory-theory-construction -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/soctheory-theory-construction, .gemini/skills/soctheory-theory-construction, .github/skills/soctheory-theory-construction and .opencode/skills/soctheory-theory-construction in your project.

What does Soctheory Theory Construction need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Soctheory Theory Construction is instructions for the agent only.

Does Soctheory Theory Construction access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Soctheory Theory Construction safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Soctheory Theory Construction use?

Soctheory Theory Construction is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Soctheory Theory Construction use?

About 1.4k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5.7k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Soctheory Theory Construction?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Soctheory Theory Construction: Writing Livekit Scenarios (livekit-examples/agent-starter-python, 264 stars), Go Testing (cxuu/golang-skills, 173 stars), Goalcraft (grp06/goalcraft, 102 stars) and Thinking Partner (mattnowdev/thinking-partner, 206 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Soctheory Theory Construction?

brycewang-stanford (a GitHub user) maintains it in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, which has 1,231 GitHub stars. The repository holds 2,387 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 27, 2026.

Source: brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.