Understanding Research Philosophies and Approaches

Understanding research philosophies and approaches approaches

Philosophy is a way of thinking about the world, the universe, and about people literally means "love of wisdom"

What

is the outcome of research?

Conducting any research, even with relatively modest ambition of answering a specific problem in particular organisation, results in developing new knowledge, which extends the level of wisdom.

What

is research philosophy?

It contains all important assumptions about the way in which the researcher views the world, and also strategies and methods he uses

Why

research philosophy is important

Questions of method (both qualitative and quantitative) are secondary to questions of  paradigm, which we define as the basic belief  system or world view that guides the investigation, not only in choices of method but in ontologically and epistemologically fundamental ways. Guba and Lincoln, Competing paradigms in qualitative research

The

research onion

Why

is research philosophy important?

Key issue is ability to reflect philosophical choices and defend them in relation to alternatives we could have adopted. There

is no research philosophy better than another, it depends on particular question the researcher is going to answer

Ways

of thinking

Ontology (metaphysics)  is concerned with the nature of reality, raises the questions of  the assumptions about how the world operates Epistemology  concerns what constitutes acceptable knowledge in a field of study Axiology

Ontology Objectivism  social entities exists independently of social actors Subjectivism  underline meanings that individuals attach to social phenomena

Axiology Is a branch of philosophy that studies  judgement about value which every human posses in the fields of aestethics and ethics Outcome of the research can be influenced based on the values the researcher has

Research philosophies Pragmatism Positivism Realism

Interpretivism

Pragmatism States that the most important the researcher has to adopt his research question, which should be interesting by possesing certain value

Positivism Research

is done only in observable data where is a possibility to find law-like generalisations The

output of research can be easily tested, and is free of the researcher personal involvement

Realism Direct realism  what we experience through the senses portrays the world accurately Critical realism  what we experience are the images of the things in the real world, not the things directly

Interpretivism Argues with positivism that social world is too complex to define laws in the same way than in physics Advocates that this is necessary to understand differences in humans in our role as social actors

Research Deduction Induction

approaches

Deduction Involves the development of the theory that is subjected to a rigorous test Dominant research approach in natural sciences Final characteristics is generalisation

Induction Building theory based on analysed collected data Focus on understanding of the way which humans see social world, where deduction sometimes fail creating cause-effect link between variables

Thank

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