"A theory is a way of making sense of a disturbing situation" 

A theory is a generalization about a phenomenon, an explanation of how or why something occurs.  Indeed, any statments that explain what is measured or described--any general statements about cause or effect--are theory based, at least implicitly.

A generalization about a phenomenon that explains how or why the phenomenon occurs."

The power of a theory is its ability to connect events into a unifed web.

"What gives a theory its power is not the declarative statements it consists of but rather the relationship among those statements.  It is the form of the relationship among statements rather than the individual statements themesleves that distinguish between theory and description."

"A system of generalizable statements that are logically linked together to understand or predict human phenomena."

To DESCRIBE, EXPLAIN, PREDICT, or CONTROL human phenomena in a variety of contexts.

"Research methods are the particular strategies researchers use to collect the evidence necessary for building and testing theories" 
 

Behaviorists collect atomistic (small) quantitative (numerical) units of analysis (behavior) under controlled conditions (in a research laboratory). 

Phenomenologists typically collect holistic (meaningful) qualitative (symbolic) units of analysis (concepts) under naturalistic conditions (in the field)."