Date: 30 August

Day: Monday
Submitted to: Prof. Sudipta Garai

Alaka Rajeev 193031

Bachelor of Arts (Psychology, Sociology, English)
Semester V
Methods of Social Research - SOC 531
Department of Sociology
CHRIST (Deemed to be University),
Bengaluru - 560029

1. What is the relationship between ontology and epistemology? Explain in relation to

Positivism and Interpretivism.

Ontology refers to the study of ‘being’ and how reality and existence can be understood by us.
For positivists, the ontological position they adopted was that there is only one reality which is
objective in nature whereas Interpretivists said that reality is multiple and relative given that the
social world around the perceivers will colour how they see the social world around them and
hence emphasises on how reality is constructed by the values we hold and how that affects the
way we perceive reality.

Epistemology focuses on the assumptions we possess about the nature of knowledge and how it
is acquired by human beings. From a positivistic viewpoint, the world is seen to exist
independently, outside of the values and perceptions the researcher holds. There is an emphasis
on perceiving reality in an objective manner and only what is observable in the physical world is
seen significant enough to be studied. Interpretivism believes that the researcher cannot be value
free as they are impacted by the world around them and the possession of their own subjective
thoughts will have an influence on how they create meaning. The researchers adopt a value free
approach if they believe in positivism whereas interpretivists approach a value neutral approach.
2. How do you differentiate between Validity and Reliability?

Reliability refers the degree to which the measurement of a construct remains consistent. In
research, an attempt is made to rely on objective ways of gaining information such as objective
questionnaires or scales to ensure that the technique being used is reliable and that if another
researcher adopts the same scales and conducts the test under similar conditions, they would
receive the same results. Test-retest reliability, split half reliability and internal consistency
reliability are some ways of estimating reliability.

Validity indicates the extent to which a given measure/scale represents the construct that it is
aiming to measure. For example, does the scale that seeks to measure a person’s resilience
actually measure the person’s level of resilience. Both theoretical and empirical assessment of
validity is required to ensure that the measures used in the research are valid. Three basic kinds
of validity are face validity, content validity, and criterion validity.

References

Chapter 7 Scale Reliability and Validity | Research Methods for the Social Sciences

(PDF) Demystifying Ontology and Epistemology in Research Methods

https://opentextbc.ca/researchmethods/chapter/reliability-and-validity-of-measurement