PARADIGMS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH © LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE MANION & KEITH MORRISON
STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The search for truth Two conceptions of social reality Positivism The assumptions, nature and tools of science The scientific method Criticisms of positivism and the scientific method Naturalistic approaches Normative and interpretive paradigms Phenomenology, ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism Criticisms of naturalistic and interpretive approaches Mixed methods research Post-positivism, post modernism and post-structuralism Complexity theory
PARADIGMS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH POSITIVIST
INTERPRETIVE
MIXED METHODS
POST-POSITIVIST
POSTSTRUCTURALIST
POST-MODERNIST
COMPLEXITY THEORY
POSITIVISM (MACRO) NATURAL SCIENCE BASIS
GENERALIZATION
OBJECTIVITY
PREDICTION
NOMOTHETIC, LAWS
CAUSALITY
CONTROL, MANIPULATION
QUANTIFICATION, LARGE SCALE
POSITIVIST DESIGN IDENTIFY TOPIC REVIEW PREVIOUS LITERATURE
LOOK FOR ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS
FORMULATE HYPOTHESIS DESIGN RESEARCH COLLECT DATA
START PROCESS AGAIN NO
ANALYZE DATA YES
REPORT FINDINGS
POSITIVIST METHODS
EXPERIMENTS SURVEYS TESTS
INTERPRETIVE PARADIGM (MICRO) NATURALISTIC
UNDERSTANDING/ INTERPRETATION
SUBJECTIVITY, INTENTIONALITY
INTERPRETATION AGENCY
IDIOGRAPHIC CONTEXT-BOUND SPECIFIC/NONGENERALIZABLE
FLUIDITY, CHANGE MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES
INTERPRETIVE/ETHNOGRAPHIC IDENTIFY TOPIC LITERATURE REVIEW RESEARCH DESIGN DATA COLLECTION DATA ANALYSIS ELABORATION OF CONCEPTS/THEORIES REPORT OF FINDINGS
NATURALISTIC METHODS
ETHNOGRAPHY
NARRATIVES, DOCUMENTS
THICK DESCRIPTION OBSERVATION
INTERVIEWS
POSITIVIST APPROACHES
NUMBERS, MEASUREMENT SURVEY, EXPERIMENT ETHNOGRAPHY
NATURALISTIC APPROACHES
INTERVIEW OBSERVATION CASE STUDY ACTION RESEARCH
NUMBERS, MEASUREMENT
SURVEY INTERVIEW
CASE STUDY METAANALYSIS
MIXED METHODS
HISTORICAL & DOCUMENTARY VIRTUAL WORLDS
ETHNOGRAPHY OBSERVATION EXPERIMENT ACTION RESEARCH
POST-POSITIVISM, POSTSTRUCTURALISM & POSTMODERNISM MULTIPLE REALITIES
INTERPRETIVE
PHENOMENOLOGY
NO GRAND NARRATIVES
MULTIPLE MEANINGS
DIFFERENCE & DIVERSITY
CONTRADICTORY DISCOURSES AGENCY & INDIVIDUALISM DISCOURSES
CONTEXT & TEMPORALITY RELATIVIST
Relationships
Open systems
Complex adaptive systems
Holism Emergence
Non-linear systems
COMPLEXITY THEORY
Selforganization Feedback/ communication
Connectedness Distributed control
Order without control