Research Paradigms

A research paradigm reflects a researcher's epistemological position. The paradigm will shape the research question, as well as the methods of data collection and analysis the researcher will select.

Brief Roundup of Major Paradigms

Positivist - Assumes that "objective" investigation of reality can yield a correct "answer" to a research question through hypotheses-testing; often uses quantitative methods to collect and analyze data; accepts scientific method as appropriate for social sciences and human phenomena.

Post-positivist - Rejects positivist stance, and acknowledges that the researcher, participants, theories used, influence what is observed. The researcher still attempts to capture objective reality, but is aware of the role of bias in that process.

Constructivist or Interpretive - The researcher recognizes that individuals construct or interpret reality, resulting in multiple meanings. In other words, when it  comes to human phenomena, truth or reality are shaped by individuals, and do not exist "objectively" in the real world.

Critical Ideological or Transformative - Recognizes the political character of research, especially with the ideal of social or socio-political transformation that research participants can undertake. Often associated with participatory research methods.

Pragmatic - Concerns with research yielding practical, usable findings such as those associated wit evidence-based movements. Pragmatism views the mixing of quantitative and qualitative data in a single study not only as legitimate, but in some cases necessary.

Supercomplexity - A complex world is one in which we are assailed by more facts, data, evidence than people can easily handle within the frameworks in which we have our being; by contrast, a supercomplex world is one in which the very frameworks by which people orient themselves to the world are contested (Barnett, 2000). In this paradigm, the world is fragile that that fragility is brought on by the way that people understand the world, themselves and security about ways of being and acting in the world. Corresponding supercomplexity research acknowledges all of this, and accounts for a complex subject whose views might be in constant flux in a rapidly shifting world. Thus, supercomplexity research may result in uncovering  further problematic aspects of the phenomenon studied, rather than a tidy solution.

For Further reading:

Barnett, R. (2000). University knowledge in an age of supercomplexity. Higher education, 40(4), 409-422.

Gray, D. E. (2013). Doing research in the real world. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Ponterotto, J. G. (2005). Qualitative research in counseling psychology: A primer on research paradigms and philosophy of science. Journal of counseling psychology, 52(2), 126.

 Schwandt, Thomas A. (1994). Constructivist, interpretivist approaches to human inquiry. In Denzin, Norman K. (Ed); Lincoln, Yvonna S. (Ed), (1994). Handbook of qualitative research, (pp. 118-137). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.