Choosing a Paradigm

Paper Summary:

This well-researched paper defines the term 'research paradigm' as system of beliefs, values and techniques which are shared within a group or community. The writer of this paper focuses on research paradigms as a method of looking at the world while providing a specific foundation for researchers to understand what is going on around them. The writer contends and explains why paradigms are discernible by different sets of beliefs which are acquired from philosophical assumptions about the nature of reality. This paper focuses on both the positivist and interpretivist forms of paradigms as they relate to the field social science and research. Positivist paradigms stress significance and disposition while the interpretivist form of paradigms focus on substance and situation.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Social Science Research and Natural Science
What is a Paradigm?
The Positivist Paradigm
The Interpretivist Paradigm
Alternative Perspectives
Paradigms and Methods
Paradigms and the Research Proposal
Conclusions
References

From the Paper:

"Pragmatists acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of each tool. They recognize not only that science affects decision-making but also politics, ignorance, intuition, habit, and prejudice. They also understand the limitations--recommendations are tentative and of a probabilistic nature. Miles and Huberman comment that "we believe that all of us, realists, relativists, critical theorists, are closer to the center, with multiple overlaps." A growing body of social research takes a stand somewhere between the two schools of thought. Eclectic researchers recognize that no piece of social research can be entirely objective, since no researcher is value free. Even in an overtly rigorous quantitative, head counting study, some implicit decisions have already been made as to which heads are worth counting. Eclectic researchers can be more flexible in designing the research process."

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