Research Paradigms: Positivism & Post-positivism

Research Paradigms

• Positivism: Also known as "the scientific method", this approach was influenced by August Comte (1844) and emphasizes the existence of an objectively observable outside world with rules and laws that can be discovered through measurements and observations.

Positivist Updates

• 1960s: Karl Popper introduced the concept of falsification, and Thomas Kuhn introduced the concept of paradigm shifts.

Criticisms of Positivism

• Post-positivism: Emphasizes that humans bring their own biases to the measurement process, and that measurements themselves are imperfect.
• Constructivism & Interpretivism: Roots in the 1910s and 1920s, this approach rejected the positivist quest for objective truths/laws in social science, highlighting the complexity and fuzziness of scholarly areas like psychology and sociology.

Alternative Paradigms

• Critical Theory: Roots in the 1930s "Frankfurt School" critique of power systems, developed throughout the 21st century with feminism, critical race theory, and postcolonialism, critiquing the ways power structures affect human behavior and shape human thought and experience.
• Critical Theory agrees with the subjectively constructed nature of human experience but emphasizes the political and power dynamic aspect.

Research Components

• Axiology: What do we value?
• Ontology: What's out there to know?
• Epistemology: What and how can we know about it?
• Methodology: How can we go about acquiring that knowledge?
• Methods: What precise procedures can we use to acquire it?
• Sources: Which data can we collect?

Research Approaches

• Quantitative: Ways of gathering and making sense of numerical data, often derived from controlled experiments.
• Qualitative: Ways of gathering and making sense of text/audio/image data, usually derived from non-experimental contexts.

Post Positivist Approach

• Stressing the importance of big data and qualitative research to understand the effectiveness of systems and identify issues.

HRC Research Project: In-work Poverty

• A mixed methods research project asking "Why is having a job not enough?"
• Examining the relationship between work, income, housing, and wellbeing, with a focus on low-income households and the stress they experience.

Research Design

• Phase 1: Integrating visual methods into interviews, including:
  • Genograms to understand family relations and social ties.
  • Mapping and graph-drawing to understand employment conditions and costs of living.
  • Photo-elicitation to understand wellbeing and experiences.