Lecture 1 - Ontology, Epistemology, Methodology And Methods

Front 1

Broadly speaking, how many 'paradigms' or methodologies are there? What are these?

Back 1

Four paradigms

1. Positivist
2. Interpretivist
3. Radical
4. Post-structural
5. Indigenous approaches

Front 2

What is the difference between ontology, and epistemology?

Back 2

Ontology refers to our beliefs about what kind of being a human is, and the nature of reality.
This helps us define an epistemology, which defines the relationship between the enquirer and known, what counts as knowledge, and on what basis we can make knowledge claims.

Front 3

Name four levels of 'theory' within research?

Back 3

1. Ontology
2. Epistemology
3. Methodology (e.g. phenomenology)
4. Methods

Front 4

What does a post-positivist view suggest?

Back 4

There are multiple truths and multiple and competing views of science.

Front 5

What are the values of positivism?

What is the relationship in positivism between the researcher, and the researched?

Back 5

There is an underlying reality that can be seen/discovered.

Distance between the researcher and researched is attempted so the experimenter effect/bias doesn't influence results.

Front 6

What is the positivist researchers goal?

Back 6

The positivist researchers goal is to test a hypothesis, a proposition of cause (an independent variable) and effect (dependent variable) about a problem).

Front 7

What are the values of interpretivism?

What is the relationship in interpretivism between the researcher, and the researched?

Back 7

Instead of seeking a 'truth' of an experience, interpretivist researchers seek to understand what it is to be human and what meanings people attach to the events in their lives.

The relationship in interpretivism between the researcher and the researched is intersubjective. The researcher acts as a listener and interpreter of the data given by the participant.

Front 8

What is the goal of the interpretivist researcher?

Back 8

The interpretivist researcher aims to understand, subjectively, the experience of others, and how they prescribe meaning to certain events in their lives.

Front 9

What are the values of radical approaches?

What do radical approaches argue when it comes to interpretivist approaches?

Back 9

The values radical approaches take, include that we live in an unjust world in whichinequalities are configured along predictablesocial lines of gender, ethnicity, class, age, sexualorientation and so on.

Radical approaches argue, abstractly, that in some important respects the ‘truth’ ofeveryday experience has been mystified to itsown subjects through ideological mechanismssuch as hegemony which work to make theinterests of the most powerful groups in societyseem natural.

Front 10

In radical approaches, what is the relationship between the researcher and the researched?

Back 10

The radical researcher’s goal is overtly political:to emancipate people from unjust or oppressivesocial structures through rational transformation.It is “to change the world, not justdescribe it”

Front 11

What are the values of the post structuralist (post modernism) paradigm?

Back 11

Poststructuralism rests on an assumption that no-one can stand outside the traditions or discourses of their time. For this reason, “the search for grand narratives will be replaced by more local, small-scale theories fitted to specific problems and specific situations”

Research accounts will always be partial and subjective,even contradictory, because meanings are “multiple,unstable and open to interpretation”

Front 12

What is the difference between post structuralism and critical realism when answering "is there an objective reality?".

Back 12

Post structuralism: No. Power and systems of thought produce culturally-specific representations that offer a semblance of objective reality.

Critical realism: There is an objective ‘deep’reality, but this is not apparent to the lay observer, or from empirical data.

Front 13

Explain another paradigm, which is hard to define?

Name two problems?

Back 13

Postcolonial, Kaupapa Maori research.

Local form of critical research - so might fit the radical paradigm. But, it doesn't fit radical paradigm easily. Radical, to maori, often has a negative conotation, as 'trouble maker'.

Might fit a broad fifth paradigm, postcolonial. Though this is contested by the Maori who resist defining their research practices by Western standards.

Front 14

From an ontological perspective, name three dominant perceptions of reality?

From an epistemological perspective, name the corresponding perceptions of knowledge?

Back 14

Realism, critical realism, and relativism.

Positivism, post-positivism, and interpretivist/constructivist

Front 15

What is basically the same as positivism?

Back 15

Modernism

Front 16

What does post-structuralism represent?

What do post-structuralists believe?

Back 16

Post-structuralism represents a range of viewpoints, and therefore is impossible to define.

Post-structuralists believe that it is not possible to define social phenomenon. It represents a move away from normal ways of thinking (realism or relativism) that supposedly explain reality.

Front 17

What does post positivism represent?

Back 17

Post-positivism represents one of the earliest shifts away from positivism, and shares a number of similarities with it.

Front 18

Name one way of seeing critical realism?

Back 18

A realist ontology
A relativist epistemology