Making sense of Research Methods

Foundations of research

• Ontology (ways of being)
• Epistemology (possible ways of knowing)
• Methodology (possible approach chosen from these ways)

Paradigms (models for doing research) according to Guba & Lincoln (1994)

• Positivism or Realism

This is easier than we realise. It is fact. The here and now, and is provable because of the data. It is Quantifiable. There is one reality that can be directly observed and measured. Here your Research presents clear findings. 

In experiments, variables are manipulated to test hypotheses in order to confirm or deny findings.

• Post-positivism

Rise of qualitative methods. Reality may only be imperfectly perceived. Probability statistics are important

in describing findings.  Knowledge is ‘accumulated’ as studies add to our store of understanding

• Critical theory (political)

• Constructivism
Constructivists argue that human beings construct their own social realities in relation to one another.  Reality is subjective and experiential : that thing over there that looks like a table is actually being used as a chair. My particular construction of reality might be shared with many other people, but other people could construct the same reality in quite different ways.