Examples Of Epistemological Presuppositions

Qualitative research data is useful to explain to others the outcome of the information whereas quantitative research is difficult to understand at an initial glance. An advantage to quantitative data is that it is easy for you to turn in to quantitative data, which is more aesthetically pleasing for the audience.

The theoretical foundations of qualitative and quantitative methods are very different, but many researchers believe both methods should be used in the research study to increase validity and reliability.

For quite a while there has been some discussion around which method of distinctions between Qualitative research and quantitative research. This has been fired in later years with some thinking that a combination of the two is best practice especially in social

Quantitative and qualitative research generates from two different perspectives, and it provide different types of crucial information from the research subject. Qualitative research corresponds more with comprehensive and thorough descriptions of events, whereas quantitative research creates statistical models to explain events. Several advantages and disadvantages in qualitative and quantitative research, depends upon the researcher's purpose and area of focus and information that will answer those research questions (Creswell, (2013).

Quantitative research deals with numbers and is measurable. Some examples of quantitative data are cost, number of participants and time. This type of research is systematic and uses the more traditional scientific method of data collection and presentation. Qualitative research has data that is nonnumeric in nature and it is difficult to measure. As the root of the same suggests, it gives a quality description of the data being viewed. It can include descriptions or verbal responses. Qualitative data is subjective in the sense that the answer can be different amongst various people.

Qualitative research is flexible written form their results are ongoing and their conclusion can be changed while quantitative research is numerical, reliable, specific, data are collected by statistical analysis due to which quantitative are more accurate. Qualitative research uses open questions to find the depth of the information while quantitative research uses closed question, secondary data or experiments due to this it lacks the depth of the information and neglect the effect of the individuals which could be service provider, service users or other staff members.

Ethnography is a qualitative method of research in which the researcher takes part in the activities of a group such that they are able to complete their observations over a period of time in a natural, real-life environment.

In chapter six, Sire seeks out to find if worldviews can have both a private and public set of assumptions, as well as if they represent objective or only subjective frameworks. His conclusion is that everyone has a worldview, which is individual to that person, but what about a public shared worldview? While there are individual assumptions to each person’s worldview that may differ, Sire claims that culture shares common presuppositions (i.e., there are sets of assumptions within each society that the culture at large holds). While each worldview will vary in degrees to what is truly subjective or objective, Sire says what is actually there is at least objective to everyone. While the Christian worldview starts with objective reality, there

Research methodology and methodological approaches that is, the structured process of conducting research and the overall concepts and theories which underpin research respectively (Bryman, 2008), occupy a central position in the research process as they are both shaped by and translate the researcher’s epistemological position. Epistemology then refers to a researcher’s philosophical stance about the nature, derivation and scope of knowledge (Gilbert, 2008). These positions are seldom ‘spelt out’ but rather understood in the matter of research methodology and approach (Sarantakos, 2005).

General speaking, quantitative research is thought to be objective, however qualitative research often involves a subjective element. There are differences designs in qualitative research in comparison to quantitative research. Qualitative research involves words, pictures, or objects; Quantitative involves data in the form of numbers and statistics.

A paradigm is essentially what guides the research conducted by a researcher. Qualitative and quantitative are the main two research paradigms that guide a researcher. These are basically beliefs about reality or ontology. This is called relativism and in this paradigm, the researcher believes that there are many qualitative perspectives of reality. Generally this type of research is subjective. Qualitative research analysis is generally inductive and focuses on experiences and perceptions of research participants. Research design methods for this paradigm include phenomenology (lived experience), ethnography (influence of culture) and grounded theory (social process) (NurseKillam, 2017).

This paper will explore one of the three problems raised by Stich, in Chapter 7 of his work Cognitive Science and the Concept of Belief, for Fodor’s account of propositional attitudes. It will begin with a brief explanation of Fodor’s theory of folk psychology and his ideas of propositional attitudes, and will continue with an in depth analysis of Stich’s critique of Fodor’s representational theory of mind, specifically Stich’s discussion of the problems posed by ideological similarity and the consequences said problems have on the strength and validity of Fodor’s theory. Finally, it will conclude with my response, on the behalf of Fodor, to the problem formerly stated.

“Researchers who use quantitative research method seek objectivity through testable hypotheses and carefully designed studies, and gather date that can be reported in numbers and statistics” (Crawford, 2016, p. 66). According to Crawford (2016, p. 66) “conclusions from this study are drawn from statistics and generalized to populations of interest”. Unlike qualitative that helps to eliminate opinions and thoughts, quantitative quantify opinions and thoughts and they obtain results from a larger sampling population. As I had previously stated on my discussion board “Quantitative researcher’s collection methods include many different kinds of surveys for example; online surveys, paper surveys, online polls, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, and etc”(myself). “They use the surveys to measure attitudes, behaviors, and opinions” (myself).

(i) Quantitative vs Qualitative Research: Qualitative research methods is based on values and not numbers while quantitative is based on numeric and Quantifiable data to generalize in its conclusion.

“Whilst quantitative research may be mostly used for testing theory it can also be used for exploring an area and generating hypotheses and theory. Similarly qualitative research can be used for testing hypotheses and theories even though it is mostly used for theory generation” (Hughes, 2006). Both of these designs may be similar with testing theory, they are also similar in the tools that they use and how the data is analyzed. “Qualitative data often includes quantification (eg statements such as more than, less than, most as well as specific numbers). Quantitative (ie questionnaire) approaches can collect qualitative data through open ended questions” (Hughes, 2006). These similarities are what make these two study designs compatible for each other.