"[...] Fortunately, in the last decade in particular, much progress has been made on incorporating social science theory into both campaign design and evaluation, primarily in the health field. Indeed, evaluators are being encouraged to engage in theory testing and/or logic model development. Findings from recent meta-analyses suggest that newer communication campaigns are increasingly utilizing theory. In addition, there has been great diversity in the theories being applied in this area, and many of the theories being used most often, including the Theory of Reasoned Action, Social Cognitive Theory, and the transtheoretical “Stages of Change” model, also are widely studied in the health behavior change literature.
An evaluation research team typically consists of program staff in charge of program planning and a program evaluator. Often, the program evaluator is one of the few behavioral or social scientists on the project. Without a theorist on the team, the theory behind the project is likely to remain implicit from the start. The failure to acknowledge or discuss theory from the beginning risks wasting resources on message strategies that are not adequately linked to psychosocial predictors of behavior, and on performance measures that are off the mark. Thus, all program personnel should be involved in theory/logic model development so that the theoretical underpinnings of the project are grounded in more than evaluator assumptions." (Introduction)