Points to remember
The following are the major points introduced in this chapter. Ensure that you are very confident with their meaning, content, context and significance.
1
There are many models of social research.
2
Diversity in research reflects diversity in paradigms, in methodologies and in
the methods they employ.
3
A paradigm is a set of propositions that explains how the world is perceived.
4
A methodology is a model entailing the theoretical principles and frameworks
that provide the guidelines as to how research is to be conducted.
5
A method is a tool or an instrument employed by researchers to collect or
analyse data.
6
The two methodologies are quantitative and qualitative methodology.
7
Examples of paradigms are positivism symbolic interactionism, phenomenology,
ethnomethodology, hermeneutics, psychoanalysis, ethnology, ethnography and
sociolinguistics.
8
Examples of paradigms developed within a critical perspective are critical
sociology, conflict school of thought, Marxism and feminism.
9
Many methods employed in qualitative research are also employed in quantitative
research.
10 The
quantitative and qualitative methodologies vary fundamentally from each other.
11
Quantitative methodology takes a rigid, objective, neutral and 'scientific'
stance and employs a perspective which resembles that of the natural sciences.
12
Qualitative methodology adopts a subjective perception of reality and employs a
naturalistic type of inquiry. Its central principles are openness, the
process-nature of the research and the object, reflexivity of the object and
analysis, explication and flexibility.
13
Quantitative methodology sees reality as objective and simple, qualitative
methodology as subjective and problematic.
14
Quantitative methodology explains human action in terms of nomological
principles, qualitative methodology explains human action in non-deterministic
terms.
15
Quantitative methodology supports a value-free inquiry, qualitative methodology
a value-bound inquiry.
16
Quantitative methodology is deductive, qualitative methodology is inductive.
17 The
researcher is rather distant and passive in quantitative research, but active
and close to the participants in qualitative research.
18
Qualitative research entails subject-directed paradigms, object-directed
paradigms and development-directed paradigms.
19
Quantitative methodology has been criticised, among other things, for the way in
which it perceives reality, people and research, the methods it uses, the
politics it supports and the relationship it establishes with the researched.
20
Qualitative methodology has been criticised, among other things, for not being
able to cope with demands related to reliability, representativeness,
generalisability, objectivity and detachment, ethics and the value of collected
data.
21
Qualitative research entails subject-directed paradigms, object-directed
paradigms and development-directed paradigms.
22
Quantitative and qualitative methodology are equally valuable and useful in
their own context.
23
The main differences between the various types of research originate in their
ontology and epistemology.
24
Ontology is the science of 'being', and is concerned with the nature of
existence and the nature of reality. It asks: 'What is the nature of
reality?'
25
Epistemology is the science of knowledge, its nature, scope and basis. It asks:
'How do we know what we know?'
26
Ontologies inform epistemologies; epistemologies guide methodologies; and
methodologies determine the nature of methods.