A Research Study On Research Philosophy

In “Letters to Birmingham,” King uses figurative language and literary devices to achieve his purpose of getting his point across. For example, King stated in his letter, “Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of the country.” King uses this quote to get the point across that they protested in Birmingham because it had the worse case of segregation. He needed people to understand all the brutality the bestowed upon them and the reason that it must stop.

“Research methodology is influenced by the logic of experimental designs derived largely from biological science” (Lee, 1992). For a researcher in the hard sciences to validly study any phenomenon, the researcher must be detached and separate from the phenomenon being studied. Hard scientists believe that if the researcher interferes with the phenomenon in any way the value of the study is reduced or negated. Social “objectivists perceive that their studies can be (and of necessity need be) done independently of what is being observed and that their

The three ways of doing sociology are positivist sociology, interpretive sociology, and critical sociology. The emphasis of positivist sociology is on action, specifically about people’s observable activities, while interpretive sociology refers to how others understand these actions. A positivist orientation is closely used in scientific studies, specifically because of its objectivity and use of quantitative data. An example of this is when researchers use the observed data taken from a laboratory examination. On the other hand, the interpretive sociology focuses more on people’s interaction and its subjective meaning. An example of interpretive orientation is when researchers interpret the behaviours of their subjects based on qualitative factors that are not objectively

“Interpretive research begins and ends with the biography and self of the researcher." (Denzin, 1989, p.12). The positivist researcher is not affected by the subject of the research because he makes generalizations. (Saunders, 2003 p. 83). When the investigator is a positivist, he tends to use methods like experiments, surveys and field studies to generate data. In this approach, the interviewer is more likely to be an outsider which means that the investigator does not have any relation with the study group.

Positivism is a "research philosophy that involves working with the observable social reality. The emphasis is on highly structured methodology to facilitate replication, and the end product can be law-like generalisations similar to those produced by the physical and natural scientists" (Saunders, 2003). The basic beliefs are that the world can be seen as an external and objective object where the observer remains independent. The action research literature has strongly challenged the character of ‘positivist' research (Waterman et al, 2001; Hart, 1996; Susman and Evered, 1978).

Positivism and interpretivism are two approaches of interpreting social reality, that each employ different methods of research and data collection to better help understand the study of human lived experiences. The positivist-interpretivist debate revolves around the ways in which human behavior should be conceptualized and studied (Pruss 1996: 4). Positivism is the most widely practiced research approach in social science, which regards the nature of social reality of independent of consciousness. Positivists believe social reality can be studied independently from the researcher and that social life can be represented using numbers that according to positivists reveal features of social reality. On the other hand, interpretivists favor partipcant observation, interviews and social interaction where the researcher immerses into the informant’s reality to gain knowledge of their everyday human lived experiences.

.Knowledge and arguments in particular are developed based on a person’s individualised view of the environments and activities within it. According to Flower (2009), it is these individualised views that constitute what is referred to as research philosophy. Basically, research philosophy is the approach taken in construction of knowledge and by extension research. According to Saunders et al. (2009), there are three main types of research philosophy namely: interpretivism, positivism and realism. In this particular study an interpretivist

Research paradigms are ‘the entire constellation of beliefs, values, techniques, and so on shared by members of a given community’ (Kuhn, 1970, p.175). The three most common paradigms are positivism, constructivism or interpretivism and pragmatism. Each of these can be categorised further by examining their: ontology, epistemology and methodology. Fundamentally, ontology is the nature of reality, epistemology describes the relationship the investigator has with their version of reality, and methodology is the various techniques and tools used to analysis their research.

As Gioia and Chittipeddi (1991) assert in their study that interpretivism implies that the researcher must “be grounded” in the culture of the

Examine the advantages and disadvantages of using both positivist and interpretivist methods of research (20)

He adds that interpretive researchers use qualitative research methodologies to investigate, interpret and describe social realities (ontology). Another scholar, Mutch, (2005), recons that the research findings in qualitative methodology are usually reported descriptively using words. Interesting to annotate, is the assertion that qualitative researchers who include positivists regard respondents to as research participants rather than sheer objects in the

The social science paradigm also known as Post positivism consists of testing hypothesis and research questions that are developed through reasoning. This is done through measurements and observation. Social scientists aspire to science and they seek to study human behaviour, interaction and thought in an organized way; which we can then measure, generalize and replicate. Like any research, post-positivism needs to be backed up by evidence. When a social science research sets out a research project, it is their goal to find evidence that can either agree or disagree with the hypothesis or theories. Post positivism, compared to positivism allows more interaction with the participants of the research project and seeks to highlight the relationship between universal properties between the variables. The best way to understand post positivism is by comparing it to positivism and the interpretive paradigm. Compared to positivism, post positivism is more tolerant for value-based information, however is not focused on qualitative information like the interpretive paradigm, instead the research is mainly focused on quantitative data.

A methodology for an investigation of a subject is required so that the configuration required to lead the study is uncovered. A specific exploration subject can be embraced for study in two expensive methods for either deductive or inductive. The inductive methodology is a study that aids in concentrating on an examination theme when enough information on the divinely selected individual is not accessible. The introductory period of the inductive methodology is a perception that aides in increasing important data and fabricates the way of the exploration likewise. Nonetheless, Finn et al. (2000) noticed that inductive methodology fills the need of new

On another hand inductive research approach mainly work on different kinds of theories which are totally depend on the data collected from studies .Data is collected for the development of the information and theories are made on that information. It is also called as bottom up approach by which we can touch the top point by moving on the data collected from the respondents. By doing different between inductive and deductive research approach, in deductive approach, there is huge possibility of unexpected result which reduce or slow down the goodwill. Theories are already presents in deductive research approach which cannot be possible in case of inductive research approach.

What I have learned about research is that it is a process, a scientific process that psychologist and scientist develop that includes many different approaches and that is carefully peer reviewed and evaluated. There is what is called the Scientific Approach where scientist have an idea or theory and based on their observation will either support the theory or the theory can be falsified by their peers. Data also goes through a review period before it is published in a scientific journal by scientist who have the knowledge and expertise to evaluate it.