Paradigm , Theory and

Methods
Lecture 2
The Research Onion
Techniques and Time horizons Choices Strategies Approaches Philosophies
procedures

Positivism
Realism
Interpretivism
Experiment Deductive
Survey Objectivism
Case
Cross-
Mono-method studyAction Subjectivism
Data sectional
collection Mixed research
and data methods Grounded
analysis Multi-method theory
Longitudinal
Ethnography Pragmatism

Archival research
Inductive Functionalist
Interpretive
Constructivism Radical
humanist
Understanding your research philosophy

‘Research philosophy is an over-arching term

relating to the development of knowledge and
the nature of that knowledge’

Adapted from Saunders et al, (2009)

Research philosophy
• Two major research Philosophy:
• Ontology and
• Epistemology

• Ontology + Epistemology = Paradigm

Ontology
• Ontology is the study of being. Ontological assumptions are
concerned with what constitutes reality. Researchers need to
take a position regarding their perceptions of how things really
are and how things really work.
• Two basic distinctions can be made here:
• First, there is a social world that is a hard, concrete, real thing out
there, which is composed of a network of determinate
relationships between constituent parts and in these concrete
relationships an external and real social reality can be found; and
• Second, the social world is a continuous process created afresh in
each encounter of everyday life as individuals impose themselves
on their world to establish a realm of meaningful definition
Understanding your research philosophy

Ontology
• It is concerned with nature of reality. This raise the
questions of the assumptions researchers have
about the way the world operates and commitment
held to particular views.
• ‘claims about what exists, what it looks like, what
units make it up and how these units interact with
each other’.
• In short, ontology describes our view (whether
claims or assumptions) on the nature of reality, and
specifically, is this an objective reality that really
exists, or only a subjective reality, created in our
minds.
Ontology
• The first aspect of ontology we discuss is
objectivism. This portrays the position that social
entities exist in reality external to social actors
concerned with their existence.
• The second aspect, subjectivism holds that social
phenomena are created from the perceptions and
consequent actions of those social actors
concerned with their existence
• For example, a workplace report – asking one to
question whether it describes what is really going
on, or only what the author thinks is going on.
•
Epistemology
• Epistemology then is the theory of knowledge. One’s
epistemological position reflects the ‘view of what we
can know about the world and how we can know it’.
• Again there are two major distinctions to be made
here: first, the knowledge of the social world implies a
need to understand and map out the social structure
and gives rise to the epistemology of positivism with
an emphasis on the empirical social world.
• It encourages a concern for an objective form of
knowledge that specifies the precise nature of laws,
regularities and relationships among phenomena
measured in terms of social facts.
Epistemology
• This implies that an objectivist view of social world
encourages an epistemological stance that is based on
studying the nature of relationships among the elements
constituting the structure.
• Second, the knowledge of the social world implies a
need to understand the social reality embedded in the
nature and the use of modes of symbolic action like
language, labels, actions and routines.
• This phenomenological-oriented perspective gives rise
to the epistemology of interpretivism based on
understanding the processes through which human
beings manifest their relationship to their world and also
encourages a concern for subjective form of knowledge.
 epistemology

theoretical perspective

methodology

methods
Ontology Epistemology Methodology Methods Sources

What’s out
there to
What and
know?
how can
How can we
we know
go about
about it?
acquiring What
knowledge? procedures
can we use Which
to acquire it? data can
we collect?

Adapted from Hay, 2002, pg. 64

Epistemology Theoretical Perspective Methodology Methods
Objectivism Positivism Experimental Sampling
Constructionism Post-positivism research Measurement and scaling
Subjectivism Interpretivism Survey research Questionnaire
(and their Symbolic Ethnography Observation
variants) interactionsim Phenomenological Participant
Phenomenology research Non-participant
Hermeneutics Grounded theory Interview
Pragmatism Heuristic inquiry Focus group
Participatory Action research Case study
–Critical inquiry Discourse analysis Life history
–Feminism Feminist standpoint Narrative
Postmodernism research Visual ethnographic
(etc.) Case Study methods
(etc.) Statistical analysis
Data reduction
Theme identification
Comparative analysis
Cognitive mapping
Interpretative methods
Document analysis
Content analysis
Conversation analysis
(etc.)
 Epistemological Continuum
Pragmatism

Post-Positivism Interpretivism
Participatory
Positivism Postmodern

Objectivity Subjectivity
Research Paradigm
• Is an approach , or a model or a pattern to conduct
research
• A framework of thought or beliefs or understanding
within which theories and practices operate
• is a “worldview” or a set of assumptions about how
things work.
• Rossman & Rollis define paradigm as “shared
understandings of reality”
• Quantitative and qualitative research methods involve
very different assumptions about how research should be
conducted and the role of the researcher.
Theory as paradigm
• Philosophical assumptions about what constitutes
social reality (ontology)
• What we accept as valid evidence of that reality
(epistemology)
• The means by which we investigate that context
(methodology)
• The means by which we gather evidence (methods)
 4 key ‘paradigm’ questions

1. What do we believe exists? (Ontology)

– Fundamental beliefs that someone holds about the nature
of the social world and its relationship to individual social
actors.
• Social reality exists independent of the observer
• Social reality is constructed by people in particular social, cultural
and historical contexts

2. What constitutes reliable & valid knowledge?

(Epistemology)
• Causal relationships between observable phenomena
• Interpretations of meaning
 4 key ‘paradigm questions
(contd.)
• How we produce reliable and valid knowledge?
(Methodology)
• What ‘Strategies of inquiry’ (Creswell) are appropriate to our
ontological/epistemological position
• (descriptive/confirmatory <-> explanatory/exploratory)
(‘Flat world’ theory <-> Exploring other cultures)
• How can we collect data to test our theories or describe
social phenomena? (Methods)
• What data collection approaches/tools are appropriate to the the
methodology
Models of social research
1. Qualitative study
• An inquiry which seeks to understand social phenomena
through the exploration and interpretation of the
meanings people attach to, and make sense of, their
experiences of the social world “
• Associated with the Interpretive paradigm
• Key principle: Subjectivity/interpretation
• Theory developed: during and/or after (‘a
posteriori’) the study (theory generation)
• Process: Inductive
Models of social research
2. Quantitative study
• An inquiry based on testing a theory composed of variables,
measured with numbers and analysed with statistical
procedures, in order to determine whether the predictive
generalisations of the theory hold true
• Associated with: Post/positivist paradigm
• Key principle: Objectivity
• Theory stated: before (‘a priori’) the study (theory
verification)
• Process: Deductive
Models of social research
3. Mixed-method study
• Qualitative and quantitative strategies used
in a single study
Concurrent:
Quantitative and qualitative strategies
employed in parallel
Sequential:
Qualitative informs quantitative (or vice
versa)
Positivism
• Positivism has been developed from the empiricist
tradition of natural science, which sees that social science
is capable of the same possibilities that are there in the
natural science. That is, it is possible to formulate laws,
thus yielding a basis for prediction and generalization,
thereby denying any reality dichotomy. Positivists usually
use quantitative methods as research tools, as these are
objective and the results are generalizable and replicable.
• They look for explanation of behavior, not for the
meaning. A deductive approach is undertaken. Correlation
and experimentation are used to reduce complex
interactions with their constituent parts
interpretivists
• The opposite position is taken by interpretivists. They
believe that most of the reality which is meaningful
for human beings is largely constructed by them as an
ongoing process of interacting, experiencing and
sharing. For them, it is not possible to make objective
statement about the real world because the nature of
social reality and how it is imagined by the human is a
product of the human mind; humans are autonomous
and are creative; and therefore research methods
need to explore individual understandings and
subjective experiences of the world
Rossman & Rollis identify 4 different paradigms – but the two primary
paradigms are:

• Positivism – associated with quantitative research. Involves

hypothesis testing to obtain “objective” truth. Also used to
predict what may happen at a future date. Critical realism is a
subtype of positivism that incorporates some value
assumptions on the part of the researcher. It involves looking
at power in society. Researchers primarily rely on quantitative
data to do this.
• Interpretivism –associated with qualitative research. Used to
obtain an understanding of the word from an individual
perspective.
Critical Humanism is a subtype of the Interpretive paradigm.
The critical humanism approach is one in which the researcher
involves people studied in the research process. Data is used
for social change.
Differences between qualitative and quantitative research
• Involves unstructured
interviews, observation,
and content analysis.
• Subjective
• Inductive
• Little structure
• Little manipulation of
subjects
• Takes a great deal of time
to conduct
• Little social distance
between researcher and
subject
• Involves experiments,
surveys, testing, and
structured content
analysis, interviews, and
observation.
• Objective
• Deductive
• High degree of structure
• Some manipulation of
subjects
• May take little time to
conduct
• Much social distance
between researcher and
subject