Day 3 overview
Overview of research paradigms & methods
Eagle and Condor
Deduction and Induction
Rapanui
Rapanui
Descarte
1596-1650
If you would be
a real seeker after
truth, it is
necessary that at
least once in your
life you doubt, as
far as possible, all
things.
The Cartesian Split
• Consiousness: I can’t doubt that I doubt “cogito
ergo sum” (“I think therefore I am”). The inner
reality.
• Perfection I can conceive of the “perfect
entity”, therefore there must be one (God)
• A just God There must an “outer reality”, which
is stable, measurable and has mathematical
properties. God wouldn’t play tricks on us
• Dualism Therefore there is an inner and an outer
reality operating under different rules
The
connection
between
mind and
body
Auguste
Comte (17981857) –
Sociology &
Positivism
Positivism
Metaphysical (nature of reality) assumptions
• Nature is orderly and regular (measurable);
• We can know nature. (Some theorists suggest
that there exists a limit to such knowledge. Up
to now, such a limit has not been defined.)
• All natural phenomena have natural causes
(Determinism).
• Nothing is self-evident (e.g. the assertion that
“2/3” or “√2” is not a rational number – a
number that can be written - has to be proved.)
The square root of 2= 1.4142135623731…..
Firstly, assume sqrt(2) is rational, i.e can be represented as
the irreducible fraction m/n where m and n are integers.
We have sqrt(2)=m/n. Squaring, and multiplying both
sides by n2, we get m2 = 2*n2.
This tells us that m2 is even. Now the only way to get an
even square is to have its root also even, because
even*even=even and odd*odd=odd. So m must also be
even. This means that we can write m = 2*k where k is
another integer.
So now we can rewrite m2 = 2*n2 as (2*k)2 = 2*n2 = 4 *
k2. Halving both sides of this, we get n2 = 2 * k2.
This tells us that n2 is even. So n must also be even by the
same reasoning as given above. So we can write n = 2 *
j.
So if m is even and n is even, then m/n is not an irreducible
fraction. And this argumentation can go on for ever. So
the assumption that sqrt(2) is rational must be wrong,
thus sqrt(2) is irrational. Q.E.D.
Positivism
Epistemic (nature of knowledge) assumptions
• Knowledge should only be derived from
experience. (Empiricism)
• The meaning of a proposition consists in
how it is verified by experience.
(verifiability).
• The application of logical analysis will reach
the goal of unified science. (Logicism).
• Sciences should all be unified syntactically
and semantically.
Deductive Logic in Quantitative Research
Variables:
All Granny Smiths are apples
All apples have pips
Logical
Reasoning
Construct
All Granny Smiths have pips
Empirical
Investigation
Observations Test 100 randomly selected
Granny Smiths for pips
Deduction
If I am your father then
you are my daughter
I am your father
You are my daughter
If I have appendicitis, I
am very sick
I am very sick
I have appendicitis
All primates are social
creatures
All humans are social
creatures
All humans are
primates
Criminals are people
Criminals are dishonest
Criminals are dishonest
people
Actual and Estimated production of oil and
gas – Peak Oil
Inductive Logic in Qualitative Research
Concept
Granny Smiths are a type of apple
Logical
Reasoning
Narrative:
Granny Smiths have a strong
resemblance to apples except that they
don’t go red or yellow, they stay green
Empirical
Analyses
Observations: Granny Smiths have pips, are crisp,
sweet, and green on the outside
Induction
I take 20 marbles from
a bag
They are all black
All the marbles in the
bag are black
UFOs leave giant craters
where they land
There are giant crater
imprints in Oregon
UFOs have landed in
Oregon
Lithium causes
vomiting in monkeys
Monkeys and humans
are primates
Lithium will cause
vomiting in humans
Socrates was a great
man
Socrates had a mother
All great men have
mothers
Annual growth rate
= 3.5%
Karl Popper
Karl Popper’s “falsification”
principle.
• Theories cannot be proven by doing endless
confirmations of their predictions - the
inductive argument
• One falsification of a theory is sufficient to
disprove it - Newton and Einstein
• Science can never be more that a hypothesis
waiting for falsification
• If an hypothesis is not falsifiable (testable)
it is not scientific
Modernism
• Positivism, empiricism - a stable singular
observable reality
• Strong faith in science and that behaviour is
reducible to physics and chemistry
• technological solutions to problems,
industrialisation, victory over nature
• destruction of religious/cultural/class dogma
/power
• Humanistic moral force
• research as defined, structured, quantifiable
process
Georges Seurat 1885 -pointillism
atomisation
Pablo
Picasso, Le
guitariste,
1910
reductionism
Pablo (or Pablito) Diego
José Santiago Francisco de
Paula Juan Nepomuceno
Crispín Crispiniano de los
Remedios Cipriano de la
Santísima Trinidad Ruiz
Blasco y Picasso López
Victory over
nature
A.M.
Cassandre
French, 1901 1968
Nord Express
(North
Express), 1927
Arthur Charles
Radebaugh
American, 1906
- 1974
Bendix
Products, 1937
Gerrit Rietveld
Dutch, 1888 - 1964
G. A. van de
Groenekan,
fabricator (Holland)
Zig-Zag sidechair,
1939
Christopher
Dresser
English, 1834 1904
Linthorpe Art
Pottery,
manufacturer
(Middlesbrough on
Tees, Yorkshire)
Sea Urchin vessel,
1879–1882
Moder
-nism
and
Christianity
Some NZ Humanist principles
• Live a worthwhile life
• Contribute to the wellbeing of our fellow
humans, since we
depend on each other.
• Care for the health of
the environment that
nurtures us.
• Hurt not others with
that which pains
yourself.
• Do as you would be
done by
• Children should be
brought up to be
honest,
kind and fair.
The
birth
and
death of
stars
Home
New Work
Early Work
Drawings
Product
News
Links
Contact
Naïve John
Good Old
Modernism
Takes a Ciggy
Break
1992
Postmodernism (in complete defiance of the
rules of science) flies away from exhausted
Modernism
Postmodernism
Metaphysical and Epistemological assumptions
•
•
•
•
multiple and individual realities
the idea of “other”
an absence of universals (metanarratives)
rejection of structural and hierarchical models –
surface (lateral) not depth (vertical) relationships
• methodology of deconstruction
• research as a creative interactive qualitative
process
Jean-Paul Sartre & Simone de We are the
only beings
Beauvior - Existentialism
conscious of
our own
existence. We
cannot have
an “innate”
nature. We
have to create
our own
nature
Post-structuralism
• An extension/rejection of structuralism – the
meaning of words is dependent on their
relationship to other things
• Objects exist independently of thought
• All things only have meaning within social
space (relationships, discourse [thought and
language]) – social construction
• Meaning is constructed and can be
deconstructed by discourse (anchors themes)
• Meaning is always in flux and where it is
ambiguous is a pointer to shifting conditions
of power
There is no one theory or perspective that defines everything
An
ethical
and
moral
vacuum
?
Michel Foucault – power and ethics: “From being
an art of unbearable sensations, punishment has
become an economy of suspended rights”
Foucault
• Rejection of idea that there is position from which
you can observe all history – having a transcendent
consciousness
• Understanding the location and movement of
power is the key function of discourse analysis
• Everything is capable of multiple meaning – there
are no experts
• The “confession” and the “examination” as
mechanisms of oppression in social services
• Maintaining a stance through ethics based on
autonomy of the participant, reflexivity, and
critique
Jacques Derrida
Deconstruction - text analysis
1. Find tensions and instabilities in the text
2. Question assumptions which are set as self
evident, natural or original
3. Look for the binaries (man-woman),
developed-underdeveloped) – is there a
power hierarchy? How stable is the binary?
What does it exclude?
4. Look for paradox – where an author subverts
his/her own intentions
Derrida - defining deconstruction.wmv
Post-positivism
• critical realism. there is a reality independent
of our thinking about it
• all observation is fallible and has error and
that all theory is revisable
• the goal of science is to hold steadfastly to
the goal of getting it right about reality, even
though we can never achieve that goal
• objectivity is a group perspective, requiring
multiple measures and methods
• knowledge evolves through a process of
variation, selection and retention
Contrasts between positivism and postpositivism[1]
Positivism
Emphasis on parts and
decontextualization
Post-Positivism
Emphasis on whole and
contextualization
Emphasis on separation Emphasis on integration
Emphasis on the
Emphasis on the general
specific
Consideration only of
Consideration also of
objective and the
subjective and the nonquantifiable
quantifiable
Contrasts between positivism and post-positivism[1]
Positivism
Post-Positivism
Reliance on experts and
outsider knowledge-researcher as external
Consideration also of the
"average" participant and
insider knowledgeresearcher as internal
Focus on prediction
Focus on understanding
Top-down
Bottom-up
Attempt to standardize
Appreciation of diversity
Focus on the product
Focus on the process as
well
Transformative/Emancipatory
paradigm
Has a focus on social justice, the experience
of oppression, the differentials of power,
and the cultural, political, economic and
historical perceptions of “reality”. It builds
on Foucauldian ideas of ethics and asks for
a constant effort to move taken-for-granted
knowledge to conscious examination while
accepting the post-positivist agenda