PARADIGMS OF

SOCIAL RESEARCH
LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE
MANION & KEITH MORRISON

STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER

The search for truth

Two conceptions of social reality
Positivism
The assumptions, nature and tools of science
The scientific method
Criticisms of positivism and the scientific method
Naturalistic approaches
Normative and interpretive paradigms
Phenomenology, ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism
Criticisms of naturalistic and interpretive approaches
Mixed methods research
Post-positivism, post modernism and post-structuralism
Complexity theory

PARADIGMS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH

POSITIVIST

INTERPRETIVE

MIXED METHODS

POST-POSITIVIST

POSTSTRUCTURALIST

POST-MODERNIST

COMPLEXITY
THEORY

POSITIVISM (MACRO)
NATURAL
SCIENCE BASIS

GENERALIZATION

OBJECTIVITY

PREDICTION

NOMOTHETIC,
LAWS

CAUSALITY

CONTROL,
MANIPULATION

QUANTIFICATION,
LARGE SCALE

POSITIVIST DESIGN
IDENTIFY
TOPIC
REVIEW PREVIOUS
LITERATURE

LOOK FOR
ALTERNATIVE
EXPLANATIONS

FORMULATE
HYPOTHESIS
DESIGN
RESEARCH
COLLECT DATA

START PROCESS
AGAIN
NO

ANALYZE DATA
YES

REPORT
FINDINGS

POSITIVIST METHODS

EXPERIMENTS
SURVEYS
TESTS

INTERPRETIVE PARADIGM (MICRO)

NATURALISTIC

UNDERSTANDING/
INTERPRETATION

SUBJECTIVITY,
INTENTIONALITY

INTERPRETATION
AGENCY

IDIOGRAPHIC
CONTEXT-BOUND
SPECIFIC/NONGENERALIZABLE

FLUIDITY,
CHANGE
MULTIPLE
PERSPECTIVES

INTERPRETIVE/ETHNOGRAPHIC
IDENTIFY TOPIC
LITERATURE REVIEW
RESEARCH DESIGN
DATA COLLECTION
DATA ANALYSIS
ELABORATION OF
CONCEPTS/THEORIES
REPORT OF FINDINGS

NATURALISTIC METHODS

ETHNOGRAPHY

NARRATIVES,
DOCUMENTS

THICK
DESCRIPTION
OBSERVATION

INTERVIEWS

POSITIVIST
APPROACHES

NUMBERS,
MEASUREMENT
SURVEY,
EXPERIMENT
ETHNOGRAPHY

NATURALISTIC
APPROACHES

INTERVIEW
OBSERVATION
CASE STUDY
ACTION RESEARCH

NUMBERS,
MEASUREMENT

SURVEY
INTERVIEW

CASE STUDY
METAANALYSIS

MIXED
METHODS

HISTORICAL &
DOCUMENTARY
VIRTUAL WORLDS

ETHNOGRAPHY
OBSERVATION
EXPERIMENT
ACTION
RESEARCH

POST-POSITIVISM, POSTSTRUCTURALISM & POSTMODERNISM

MULTIPLE REALITIES

INTERPRETIVE

PHENOMENOLOGY

NO GRAND
NARRATIVES

MULTIPLE MEANINGS

DIFFERENCE &
DIVERSITY

CONTRADICTORY
DISCOURSES
AGENCY &
INDIVIDUALISM
DISCOURSES

CONTEXT &
TEMPORALITY
RELATIVIST

Relationships

Open
systems

Complex
adaptive
systems

Holism
Emergence

Non-linear
systems

COMPLEXITY
THEORY

Selforganization
Feedback/
communication

Connectedness
Distributed
control

Order
without
control